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Inch & Co. says planned sports complex could boost local economy by $147M annually

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3 weeks ago

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Angel Albring
 |  Special to the York Daily Record

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Inch & Co. officials made an “informational” presentation to the Manchester Township Board of Supervisors Tuesday evening about the company’s proposed massive sports complex at the site of the former Central York High athletic fields.

Matt Marshall, who is overseeing the sport complex project for Inch & Co., noted that the company plans to officially break ground on the $38.5 million project in September. Demolition on the site, including the old football stadium, began on April 1 and is continuing.

Inch & Co. owners Jeff and John Inch have planned a 250,000-square-foot sports center and training facility for the site, which has been vacant for several years. The company has billed it as “one of the region’s largest indoor recreation facilities” − similar in scope the Spooky Nook facility in Lancaster County.

In his presentation to the board, Marshall said that Inch & Co. has been working with Sports Facilities Companies, a company that develops and operates sports, recreation, events and entertainment facilities nationwide. Marshall said the company has opened more than 2,000 similar facilities.

Inch and Co. also had an outside study conducted by Delta Development Group that looked at the economic impact of the facility to the region. It is projected to have a $19.3 million impact in the first year open. Marshall said he feels that number is conservative and that the real impact could be $25 million “pretty quickly.”

Of the projected economic impact, hotels in the area will see a $5 million revenue increase in the first year due to overnight tournaments, Marshall said.

“Those numbers will only increase,” he told the board.

He went on to say that the York County Economic Alliance used software to gauge how many visitors this sports complex could realistically expect to see. According to Marshall, the software compared the new facility to Spooky Nook, and it estimated that the new sports facility will attract 924,000 annual visits. Over 375,000 of those would be from 50 miles away. 

Marshall said the average tourist spends $388 on a visit, so that would total $147 million for the regional economy each year.

In addition to the sports complex, Marshall said this facility will also house a 20,000-square-foot gym that is modeled to have around 5,000 members in the first year, and that number “has the capacity to grow.” 

“The great thing about this project is that it truly impacts the community in all facets,” Marshall said. “We really want to have this be a facility for everybody.”

‘WellSpan Sports Complex’?

An initial line item in the board of supervisors meeting agenda on Monday referred to the project as the “WellSpan Sports Complex.” The notice was changed to simply “Sports Complex” by Tuesday.

The project, however, has not been officially named yet because Inch & Co. is still “finalizing partnership deals” in regards to financing, according to Marshall.

He referred to the WellSpan mention in the agenda as “hearsay.”

When asked about the agenda referring to the facility as “WellSpan Sports Complex,” a representative from WellSpan said that “WellSpan is aware of the proposed sports complex in North York and is supportive of any project that brings economic development to the area.”

Reporter Frank Bodani contributed to this report.

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