Construction crews are expected to begin reshaping 89 acres near Juniper Street in Foley within the next two weeks, after the city-created Public Athletic and Sports Facilities Cooperative District approved a construction contract to build the athletic fields portion of the long-planned Foley Sports Tourism Complex.
The finished project will include 15 multipurpose athletic fields and an adjacent 1,000-seat championship field, forming half of a larger sports and entertainment development planned north of Baldwin County 20 between Juniper Street and the Foley Beach Express. The other half of the site is set aside for a planned 104,000-square-foot Foley Events Center, which has not yet been approved for construction. The complex sits next to the proposed $200 million Blue Collar Country entertainment development.
The full sports complex is projected to cost about $27 million, with roughly $16 million dedicated specifically to the athletic fields and related amenities. This week, the cooperative district approved a $9.5 million design-build contract with Missouri-based Killian Construction Company, along with a separate $1.94 million lighting contract with Iowa-based Musco Lighting.
The cooperative districts overseeing the project are quasi-governmental entities that let Foley borrow money and levy special fees for public projects while limiting the city’s direct financial risk. In late December, the Foley City Council approved loaning nearly $2.6 million to the districts to purchase 62 acres for the athletic fields and 17 acres for the events center from Blue Collar Destinations LLC, with bonds issued to cover the broader project cost. The city had already raised its municipal lodging tax from 4 percent to 7 percent back in August 2013 to help fund the eventual repayments.
Foley Mayor John Koniar said he was encouraged that construction and lighting contracts were finally in place after delays pushed the project’s timeline back. “By next fall or early spring, we should be up and running,” Koniar said. “We probably should’ve had it put to bed 30 days ago, as far as getting the fields sprigged sooner, but it is what it is. We’re very excited about it.”
Don Staley, Foley’s executive director of sports, has already booked dozens of tournaments for the city’s recreational facilities and the future complex since being hired last March, though he acknowledged the delays have forced some adjustments. A lacrosse tournament originally booked for the complex in early November will likely need to move to a different city venue because of the construction timeline, Staley said.
Much of the delay stemmed from a related $10 million state highway project extending Pride Drive east from Alabama 59 through the complex site to Baldwin County 20, which began in earnest in January. City Administrator Mike Thompson said Killian’s contract was expected to be finalized within days, with dirt work starting the following week. Crews plan to move roughly 184,000 cubic yards of material, the equivalent of about 10,000 dump truck loads, to prepare the fields’ subsurface base, irrigation, and drainage systems before construction of the fields themselves can begin.