• E-mail
• Print
• Comment
• Font Size
• Digg
• del.icio.us
• Discuss article

Longtime Q.C. Farm Family Envisions for-Profit Sports Site

Posted on: Monday, 27 February 2006, 15:00 CST

By Sara Thorson, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Feb. 27--A longtime East Valley farming family is making its first foray into commercial development with plans for a for-profit, indoor sports complex in Queen Creek.

Queen Creek Town Councilman Gail Barney said plans are to name the facility the Newell A. and Katherine M. Barney Family Sports Complex in honor of his parents. The couple has farmed in the Queen Creek area since 1948.

"It will fill a need for some of the adult and youth sports," Gail Barney said.

The councilman is a part owner in the project, he said, as are many of his family members. Gail Barney's brother, Kenny, is managing the project.

The sports complex would be about 70,000- to 80,000-square-feet in area -- about the size of a modest "big box" store. It would include fields and arenas for football, soccer, roller hockey, basketball, volleyball and lacrosse. Vending machines and a small concession area would provide refreshments, but the complex would not sell alcohol, Kenny Barney said.

Kenny Barney said he hoped people would come from all over the Valley to use the facility, which could be ready in 2007.

"I've seen a lot of demand from different areas," he said. "I know people from the East Valley go to north Phoenix and central Phoenix to play sports."

Queen Creek Parks and Recreation director Debbie Gomez said the town would likely seek to form a publicprivate partnership with a venue such as the proposed sports complex.

"We do have a shortage of sports amenities and of recreation facilities," she said.

Gomez said agreements with school districts provide the town with indoor and outdoor space for some sports, but Queen Creek doesn't currently offer roller hockey or lacrosse recreation programs.

The building would go on 10 acres of a 30-acre parcel of former farmland the family has reserved for sports development on the north side of Queen Creek Road, about a half-mile west of Signal Butte Road.

The site is across Queen Creek Road from 78 acres of land zoned for mediumdensity housing that the Barney family recently acquired in a $7.8 million land swap with the town.

Kenny Barney said the family may develop homes there someday, but that the sports complex had been planned for years before the land deal.

Newell Barney's family owns more than 1,300 acres in or near Queen Creek. Their first acreage was purchased in the 1940s when Queen Creek's population was just 1,000.

Kenny Barney said the family still plans to farm.

"This is only taking 30 acres out of 1,300 acres that we have," he said. "This isn't really displacing our farming operation, so we will still be farming in conjunction with this."

Kenny Barney said the sports complex plans will be presented to the Queen Creek Town Council at a March meeting.

-----

Copyright (c) 2006, The Tribune, Mesa, Ariz.

Distributed by Knight Ridder/Tribune Business News.

For information on republishing this content, contact us at (800) 661-2511 (U.S.), (213) 237-4914 (worldwide), fax (213) 237-6515, or e-mail reprints@krtinfo.com.

Source: The Tribune

More News in this Category