BETTENDORF, Iowa — Less than four years after opening, the TBK Bank Sports Complex is gearing up for a multimillion-dollar expansion project.
At a press conference on Wednesday, Feb. 16, project leaders unveiled plans for roughly $75 million in additions to the current complex. The original location sits on 75 acres of land. Once completed, the expansion will add on another 109 acres.
That space will be filled with two new, multi-use playing fields, capable of hosting eight baseball or softball fields, or four full-size soccer fields, complete with lights for nighttime play.
There will be an all-new, three-story Troon golf facility, the likes of which isn't currently available in Iowa, according to project developers.
Plans for the upcoming more-than-70,000-square-foot golf venue detail: Over 60 climate-controlled outdoor hitting bays, multi-sport turf fields, a large event space for live music and year-round entertainment, a state-of-the-art video gaming space and a rooftop patio, according to a news release from Troon, the golf management company advising the city's project and expected to manage the facility once completed.
Drivers passing by on I-80 should be able to see construction on the golf facility by mid-April, according to project managers, who hope to see the Toon complex open to the public by late summer/fall 2023.
But it's not just sports, developers also plan on bringing in new retail space for shopping, a hotel, new restaurants and bars.
And outside of the complex, construction will soon begin on a massive expansion of the Middle Road and Forest Grove Drive corridors in April. During its Tuesday, Feb. 15 meeting, the Bettendorf City Council approved an amendment to the city's Interstate 80 Urban Renewal Plan and Development Agreement that would allow for the changes.
The approved amendment allowed the City of Bettendorf to partner with two new entities — Middle and Forest Grove, LLC and FG 80 Holdings, LLC — who will oversee the construction and development of amenities, including a new hotel, pedestrian bridge providing easy access between both corridors, golf entertainment venue across from the TBK Sports Complex, ball fields and more, according to the city.
On a given weekend, the complex can see anywhere from 3,000 to 4,000 visitors. But complex president and CEO, Dave Stow, expects to see that number grow over the next few years.
"Today, every single one of our weekends is full outside on the baseball fields. So if someone wanted to come and play rugby, we're stuck. If someone wanted to have soccer outside, we're stuck," Stow said. "So to have the growth and larger tournaments, more variety, larger diversity in sport programming, would be something the region really doesn't have — to have this volume of space for sport and entertainment in one space."
To him, that's the main draw of the current complex and the expansions: the ease of having every amenity located within walking distance.
"You can gold, you can play a sport, you can eat in a restaurant, you can sleep in the hotel, you can come over here to the existing site and everything is literally walkable and that, to me, is the most exciting," Stow said.
By executing the expansion now, he hopes it will help keep the complex ahead of the rising demand for youth sports. That, argues Stow, creates a win-win situation for the entire region.
"We're not just improving the community, we're improving the region, the state, and the states around us with opportunity for youth, opportunity for business," said Stow. "It's just beyond exciting actually. I think the community's gonna be proud to have this here."
After four successful years, complex officials are confident the economic impacts of the expansion will trickle down to the surrounding community as well.
In 2021, over 1.5 million visitors stopped by the TBK Bank Sports Complex, bringing in $25 million in regional tourism dollars. According to the City of Bettendorf, the complex alone generated over $1.2 million in sales tax, as well as over $150,000 in hotel and motel taxes last year.
"What I'm excited for is to try to bring a site and a total development that basically is enhancing what we already have," said Kevin Koellner, a development partner within the expansion. "So we have two and two and we get five."
Bettendorf Mayor Bob Gallagher echoed that opinion, predicting the expansion will not only create over 100 new jobs, but also bring in at least a million new visitors to the Quad Cities.
"It will help introduce hundreds of thousands if not millions of visitors to the Quad Cities where we desperately need people to fill a plethora of different jobs," Gallagher said. "We're setting up our community to be one of the most forward-thinking and coveted tourism destinations in the Midwest — maybe even the country."
As project leaders joked, the expansion is once again building up the future of the Quad Cities, and surrounding communities, out of a cornfield.
"We're gonna take another cornfield and make it something great," Koellner said. "It just takes a vision."
Watch the City of Bettendorf's full presentation of its plans for the corridor:
