Smith said he received that news from Sam Beiler, owner of the $165 million Spooky Nook project, which is to be the country’s largest indoor sports complex, featuring 28 basketball/volleyball courts, indoor and outdoor football/soccer fields, training and weight-lifting areas, a fitness center, hotel, ballrooms and other entertainment entities, including a second location of Municipal Brew Works.
That announcement bodes well for a sooner opening of the complex, which has been delayed to an unannounced date. Beiler told the Journal-News early this month he wasn’t sure how many months delay the project would be from its hoped-for late-March opening.
On the other hand, the Champion Mill Conference Center, with 233 hotel rooms, ballrooms and large meeting spaces, “is progressing well,” Beiler said.
Reopening of B Street in April or May appears to be an indication that work on the sports complex — the portion of the complex located west of B Street — is nearing its end, because city Director of Engineering Rich Engle said the city is waiting to reopen the street until Spooky Nook construction is finished.
“That’s got to be coordinated with the contractor that’s doing the Spooky Nook,” Engle said. “We are done with our project (of building new sidewalks, placing utilities underground and installing decorative lights along B Street), but we kept B Street closed because of all the construction activity.”
“A lot of motorists use B Street, and I didn’t want to have those potential conflicts, and potential crashes, obviously,” Engle said.
Butler County’s commissioners recently forwarded $2.5 million for street improvements surrounding the Spooky Nook project.
About the Author
