Henrico considering indoor arena

Could a new indoor athletic facility take shape soon in Henrico County?

The county's Board of Supervisors and other county officials hope so.

Supervisors discussed plans for the construction of such a facility – a flexible space that could feature at least eight collegiate-level basketball courts that could be converted to volleyball courts and wrestling areas, among other uses, as well as 4,000 seats – during a work session July 24.

Preliminary plans also envision retractable spectator seating, gym dividers and concession and hospitality areas, as well as the ability to accommodate high school graduation and convocation ceremonies, Henrico Tourism Supervisor Dawn Miller told the board.

The nearly 200,000-square foot space would be located on at least 25 acres – ideally in a central location along the I-95 or I-295 corridor, according to county officials, though no location has been identified. It would be constructed according to the Public-Private Education Facilities and Infrastructure Act of 2002, Henrico County Manager John Vithoulkas said. Henrico would provide the initial capital for the project, while a private entity would develop and operate the facility, which ultimately would belong to the government.

Though Henrico has hosted national baseball and softball tournaments, Miller told the board that county officials have had to turn away requests for basketball and other indoor sporting events such as cheer, dance and wrestling competitions, because the county does not currently have the space to support them.

“The region is ripe for an indoor facility to support both our local resident needs and to help us dive into indoor sports tourism,” Miller said. “We have more youth playing basketball, and we are losing more nights of basketball to school usage. Unfortunately, we really are looking at a lack of gym space for athletes.”

During the past five years, sports tourism has increased by 42 percent in Henrico, Miller said. Glover Park opened earlier this year in Glen Allen to help address the need for more outdoor space. That park currently features four turf fields and eight sand volleyball courts and ultimately will include additional fields.

Its namesake, longtime Brookland District Supervisor Dick Glover (who died in February 2017), publicly promoted the idea of an indoor arena more than a decade ago. Glover was a longtime champion of youth sports in the county and wanted the county to have its own indoor spot for high school graduations and other uses.

The park that bears Glover's name opened just in time this spring to host part of the Ultimate Cup, a youth soccer tournament co-sponsored by the Richmond Strikers and Richmond Kickers. Throughout six weekends, 1,700 soccer teams came through the Richmond region to take part in the tournament, Miller said.

“That equates to more than 55,0000 people in six weekends that were staying in our hotels, eating our meals and shopping in our retail facilities,” she said.

Bids could be open next month
During Tuesday's meeting, Miller and her colleagues distributed a design prototype for the proposed facility, which was an updated version of one supervisors initially had received at a January retreat.

“It’s just our ideas of what we see might benefit Henrico not only for its current needs, but also for its future opportunities,” Miller said, explaining that three national basketball tournament associations had already expressed interest in hosting events in the Richmond region if such a facility were to be built.

Although board members generally were receptive to the prototype, Vice Chairman Tyrone Nelson (Varina District) voiced his concern that this facility was not as diversified as the mock-up presented at the January retreat. He preferred an option that includes an indoor track, he said.

Recreation and Parks Director Neil Luther explained that flexibility of the space was paramount in the design process and that the updated plan had been made with the input of an architect, unlike the plan presented in January.

“The concept plan you all saw back at your retreat was basically our sort of non-professional version of laying out a program,” Luther told supervisors. “There’s things that certainly could be added or subtracted to this, but this was basically our takeaway of working with an architect to give a layout that could actually be constructed.”

The county needs the Board’s permission to move forward with the project, Vithoulkas said, adding that the next step would be for the county to submit a request for proposal, or a document outlining the proposed plan that is then typically put through a bidding process.

With the Board’s permission, Vithoulkas hopes to have the RFP submitted by August 1.

“If we start in August, we give the private sector enough time to react and respond, with a goal of knowing the final entity in December,” he said.

Now is the appropriate time to build a facility like this, Chairman of the Board Frank Thornton said. At the conclusion of the session, Thornton pointed to Vithoulkas and his team to lead the project, suggesting that the proposal will move forward.