Kokomo Common Council approves $11.4 million construction

Devin Zimmerman
Jun 16, 2020

Construction on Championship Park will soon be underway, and officials hope to see the baseball facility hosting tournaments as soon as next year.

Last week, the Kokomo Common Council unanimously approved an $11.4 million construction agreement with Henke Development Group, which acted as the final hurdle to be cleared to pave the way for construction of Championship Park in Kokomo.

That facility, when completed, will be a city asset primarily consisting of eight baseball diamonds, four being regulation baseball fields and the other four being geared toward both youth-leagues and softball. Additionally, construction will entail concession stands and parking. Championship Park will be situated at the intersection of Markland Avenue and the U.S. 31 bypass.

Prior to giving the construction agreement a collective nod, council members expressed optimism about the potential impact of Championship Park on Kokomo.

Councilman Tom Miklik said the development could serve as a population growth driver.

“The endgame for me has always been to grow the population of Kokomo and bring more people into the city so they could see what kind of city we have. Hopefully they’ll move here because it’s a commute … This is a suburb of Indianapolis, and we have to start turning our thinking toward that, and this helps with that,” said Miklik.

On the other end, Council President Lynn Rudolph took note of the potential positive impact Championship Park could have on local business, with families venturing to Kokomo from out of town for baseball tournaments and spending money in the City of Firsts.

“If we can’t get them to move to Kokomo, we would prefer they spend their money here,” said Rudolph.

On the city’s end, the $11.4 million investment comes from three sources.

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The largest is a bond, which amounts to $10.6 million. The other portions are about $400,000 pulled from the Kokomo Parks and Recreation Department budget, and $450,000 from the redevelopment commission. The city funding will go toward the construction of the baseball fields, concessions, and similar amenities.

But, the project also will involve further construction by Henke Development, the developer behind Grand Park in Westfield.

An estimated $77 million investment by Henke will entail the development of 16 out lots on land directly to the east of the Darrough Chapel Veterans Memorial Park. That commercial development will include space for new offices, retail stores, and restaurants, and hotels.

Steve Henke, the CEO of Henke Development Group, said that his company’s construction of Grand Park showed that people are interested in patronizing businesses near such a facility.

“When people go to these fields, they want to try to have things near the park accessible to them,” said Henke. “So, we knew that Kokomo was also discussing this, and this is where it all came about to do commercial to generate the TIF to pay for the park. And we then met with city leaders and representatives to discuss what the needs of the city were to not only bring in tournaments, because Grand Park is also willing to bring in their tournaments there, also, to expand to that. There is also a lot of hotel usage already for Grand Park, and that will only be increased as more and more teams are able to participate in these tournaments.”

And, he added that the Kokomo facility also will field teams that couldn’t fit into Grand Park’s packed tournament lineup.

One organization did express a level of concern about the development. When complete, Championship Park will be situated near Darrough Chapel Veterans Memorial Park. Jerry Paul, the president of the Howard County Veterans Memorial Corporation, said he was in communication with Mayor Greg Goodnight’s administration when the project was first announced, and he said he’d been in contact with Mayor Tyler Moore about the project as well. Paul said he wanted to ensure the sanctity of the park remained intact.

“We want to make sure we’re in the mix and kept up on whatever is happening out there because whatever happens out there will impact the memorial, regardless of what people think,” said Paul. “That’s what our concern is right now because I had a meeting with the mayor last week. I’ve seen what I’d call a partial blueprint. So we don’t know exact measurements, and that’s what is concerning us right now. There’s a couple things we want addressed in the future. We want to make people aware that that monument was there before the ballpark, and we don’t want to disrespect our veterans because that reflects on all of us. All of the veterans that are out there on that wall have been people that have lost their lives since the Civil War and up to this present day. We just want to be kept up on everything.”

If all goes according to plan, construction on Championship Park is slated to begin in July, and it’s anticipated to be completed and ready for usage next year.