Construction is underway for an eight-acre air-supported dome that will house up to 12 turf sports fields.

Located on 33 acres of land parallel to Route 52, just west of John Jay High School in the Town of East Fishkill, the Sports Kingdome is being hailed by its constructors as one of the biggest sports dome projects of its kind.

Donato "Dan" Fraioli, head of the group and of the company that is making the air dome that will be raised on the site, said the sports facility is expected to open sometime between January and May 2017.

Warmer weather allowed construction to start at the old IBM site in January this year.

Fraioli, CEO of Air Structures American Technologies, Inc., which has built domes for several professional sports teams and other users, said the project is the “first of its kind” and will be larger than any other dome his company has built.

“We build hundreds of domes, and this is the largest multi-sports facility known to us and may be the largest multisport facility in the world,” he said.

The domes are made using a net of cables spanning the exterior to provide strength to the polyester vinyl skin. He said the design can withstand hurricane-force winds and heavy snow loads. It's to be heated and air-conditioned. The dome takes several months to construct and six weeks to install.

“We’re about four months into production on the dome itself in our factory,” Fraioli said. “Our estimation, weather permitting — it’s a major factor — we’re hoping to have it fully installed by May 2017 at the latest. I don’t see it going beyond May if we are able to inflate the dome in the spring. We wouldn’t take a risk of delivering and inflating it in the middle of winter.”

The model shows that the dome can hold four baseball fields and four multi-sport fields. Both of those fields can be converted into 12 multi-sport fields, six baseball fields or three full-size football fields.

Houlihan Lawrence Commercial Group projected 500,000 or more visitors per year to the dome, a flow of people that would tend to attract more development interest.

Fraioli said those visitors will come from all over the Hudson Valley and places beyond.

“It is probably one of the best demographic locations for youth sports in our research,” Fraioli said. “We feel we’re going to be catering to a 20-mile radius from Monday through Thursday. The radius will be unlimited beyond the tri-state area for tournaments and showcases through Friday afternoon and through Sunday.”

When open, Sports Kingdome will employ between 75 and 100 people, with the current model showing 84 positions.

The investment has a price tag of $25 million, Fraioli said. Funding will come from Fraioli’s friends and family.

Until building plans are finalized, what the property tax impact will be on a proposed $25 million sports dome complex project in East Fishkill is still unknown, but officials anticipate the economic impact will be sizable.

 

Source : poughkeepsiejournal.com

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