Emanuel, O'Shea Announce Construction Of Sports Center at 115th and Western Ave.

In a press conference Saturday morning complete with football players, hockey players and tumbling gymnasts Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel and Ald. Matt O'Shea announced that a long percolating athletic center in Morgan Park will be built.

The vacant lots on 115th and Western Avenue will be home to the Morgan Park Sports Center, an indoor ice rink and gymnastics facility. It will be the first facility of its kind in the city and will be built and run by the Chicago Park District. 

Construction is expected to start in Spring 2014 with a planned completion date of 2015, according to the mayor's press office.

The two lots that make up the vacant parcel of land have sat empty since the early 1980s when they once were covered by a Dominick's grocery store and Shell gas station. The idea of an athletic facility at this location has been talked about for years and four different attempts were made to develop the land over the decades. 

"It's not just a rumor, it's not just a maybe, it's going to happen," said Chicago Park District General Superintendent Mike Kelly. 

This is the second public trip down to the Beverly/Morgan Park community in recent weeks for Emanuel, who announced a grant and plan for the Beverly Arts Center on Sept. 26. 

"If I heard once, I heard over a thousand times about the need for an ice rink and for a gymnastics center here on the southwest side in the Beverly community," Emanuel said. " This is the first and only ice skating rink and gymnastic center for the city of Chicago."

The project, which O'Shea unveiled back in June of this year will cost $12 million and measure 55,000 square feet, according to the estimates given Saturday. 

Read: Indoor Ice Rink, Gymnastics Center Could Soon Fill Vacant Western Avenue Lots

Five months later and the project is officially a go.

Emanuel says that this project is part of an overall plan for the city that will see every one of the 300 playgrounds in Chicago rebuilt over the next five years. Ridge Park in Beverly will be one of the first to see new playground equipment. 

O'Shea has been talking about plans for an ice rink and athletic center on the land since before he was elected in 2011. 

"Thanks to the Emanuel administration we are finally going to do something about it," O'Shea said. "During my 29 months as alderman addressing this corner has been one of my top priorities."

The new center will house programs for speed skating, figure skating, gymnastics and hockey. It will also be home to programs from Special Olympics. 

"At last we will finally have a recreational development that matches the superior caliber of our residential housing stock," O'Shea said. 

The alderman described the project as a job creator that will drive economic development. 

"You turned this neighborhood's dream into a reality and for that you have our sincerest gratitude," O'Shea told Emanuel. 

Owner of Mt. Greenwood maternity store Belle Up, Jamenda McCoy, was on hand to share her excitement about the project. 

"As a parent I am excited to have a place to bring my children," McCoy said. "I call on all the moms of Beverly, the moms of Mount Greenwood, the moms of Morgan Park to turn this dream deferred, the dream delivered, into a dream destination for our families and for our communities."

The project will be paid for with public funds and will require the vacation of the portion of 115th Street that runs through the property. That last part was a point of contention for some area residents when the plans were first introduced months ago. 

With three local press conferences in as many weeks, the duo of O'Shea and Emanuel have been busy pulling together projects in the 19th Ward. 

"Roll out those gymnastics mats and sharpen those skates," O'Shea said. "The Morgan Park Sports Center is coming soon."