Officials hope for expansion of Priceville event center

For the Enquirer

PRICEVILLE – Priceville’s mayor views the city’s 1-year-old event center like an acorn that will grow a mighty oak; it’s well on its way but not finished yet.

“Basically, what we’d like to do is continue to expand it,” the mayor said of the facility at 250 Marco Drive. “We’ve got some additional room around it. We’ve talked about adding some batting cages (before the next five years are up) and we’ve talked about possibly adding another gym to it. We’ve got a great thing there, we just want to continue to make it bigger and better.” Currently, the new event center has a rentable multisport gymnasium that can hold 700. It can hold basketball tournaments, volleyball tournaments, trade shows, wedding receptions, banquets, graduations and more. Lines are painted on the court for both basketball and volleyball. The court has six adjustable basketball goals and an electronic drop net that can be lowered across the center to split the court. There are five rows of bleachers on two sides of the court. The gym also has a rollout floor covering to set up chairs.

Other amenities include a second-floor three-lane walking track, a 17,040-squarefoot multipurpose room that has tables, chairs and a movable room divider, an exercise gym and a catering kitchen. The kitchen leads to a concession stand. There is also a lobby, seating area, reception desk, conference room and employee breakroom. Outside there are 10 benches, speakers, light post USB ports for cellphone and laptop power, and an 18-by-36-foot yoga mat. There are three full-time employees and one part-timer.

The original plan for a 66,000-square-foot building had to be downsized twice to fit the budget. Officials settled on the smaller event center – 26,000 square feet – at a cost of $7.2 million. Proceeds from a 2017 bond issue covered the cost. Construction began in April 2021. The center opened June 7 of last year.

Already there are 150 bookings pending at the three different-sized rentable rooms in the event center, said Chandler Phillips, event cen-ter director. The corporate conference room holds 10, the flex room holds 18 to 20 and the multipurpose room holds more than 66.

“We have several different areas and options and we kind of wanted people to bring ideas to us,” Phillips said. “People have been really creative and open-minded and have brought ideas to us about what can be done in the space.

The staff never envisioned it at the outset, but the mul- tipurpose room became home to the New South Wrestling event a few weeks ago, Phillips said. “It went really well.” Another similar event is planned for October, she said. The facility is also used for many recurring events and meetings, like the networking groups that meet anywhere from weekly to monthly.

“We essentially have three different levels of conference rooms or meeting space,” Phillips said. The corporate conference room has held as few as eight people and has a smart board, video-call technology, leather chairs, and tables. The multipurpose room is by far the most-used room.

“We have baby showers, wedding showers, corporate lunch-and-learn events, tons of different things – it’s definitely multiuse,” she said.

The goal of the event center staff is to form relationships with the people who use the facility. This is a directive from the mayor, Phillips said. “When Sam (Heflin) hired us, he told us he wanted us to be the Chick-fil-A of recreation centers,” she said with a laugh, explaining he wanted the staff to be friendly and helpful and form relationships with users rather than display take-it-or-leave-it attitudes.

“We try to go with the flow of what the community is asking for and to be responsive to that,” said April Maples, who was just made assistant director of operations under Phillips.

One feature that Maples said is growing in popularity is the exercise gym. Available through membership from 4 a.m. to 11 p.m. daily, the gym costs $20 per month for individuals, $30 for couples and $50 for families, she said. There is also a $15 discounted membership for seniors 65 and over, military, firstresponders, teachers and students, Maples said.

The exercise gym offers standing and sitting ellipticals, stair climbers, inclining treadmills, matrix resistance strengthening equipment, recumbent bikes, a tire-flip machine, rowing machine and other equipment, Maples said. These machines offer interactive technology, so they can be used with smart phones and watches. The gym also offers health care provider programs like Silver Sneakers and Prime Renew Active, she said.In the future City Councilman Melvin Duran III said he would like to see two or three more basketball courts added to the event center because “there are so many other sports those courts can be used for in addition to basketball, including volleyball and pickleball.” Whether additional basketball courts would be added to the existing event center or whether they would be included in a separate building near the event center would still have to be determined, the mayor said.

Duran would also like to see an indoor practice facility for offseason sports including football, basketball and soccer. One feature he especially likes is the indoor walking track because the entire community can use it for free.

He credited the previous council and mayor with starting the event center plan.

“They had the vision before we came about, and we made a few changes and got it going and followed through with what we could do and afford,” he said. “It was a team effort.” City Councilman Patrick Dean would like to see a separate building built beside the existing recreation center because there is currently only one basketball court.

He said additional basketball court space would in turn translate into more volleyball courts and pickleball courts.

“Pickleball is a huge success in the building right now,” Dean said. “Right now, during the week, the ladies the way they have it scheduled is it’s 50-50, half pickleball and half basketball throughout the entire week. And volleyball. We’ve got volleyball thrown in the mix, too.” Dean said the original plans called for a three- or fourcourt building but financial constraints whittled that to one.

“We own the property right beside the event center and everything toward the interstate right there, so we’ve got room to expand whenever we want to,” he said. “I’ve talked with the mayor before about it and we wouldn’t want to add onto that building, we would like to build a different building and maybe make like a little garden breezeway or something between the two buildings. Maybe put some picnic tables and stuff like that for people to enjoy.” He said the city would not move to expand without first getting feedback from the public.

Money is the chief obstacle at this point to growing the event center, officials said.