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Published 4:00 am Saturday, January 3, 2009

What: Bend Fieldhouse at Vince Genna Stadium

Where: 401 S.E. Roosevelt Ave., Bend

Owner: Bend Elks Baseball Club

General contractor: Alpine Abatement Associates Inc., Bend

Steel building fabricator: AM-1 Steel Inc., Bend

Architect: Charlie Rowles, Bend

Engineer: WHPacific Inc., Bend

Financing: Bank of the Cascades, Bend

Cost: $1 million (includes tenant improvements)

Details: The 17,000-square-foot Bend Fieldhouse at Vince Genna Stadium will provide training grounds for the Bend Elks Baseball Club and local baseball and softball squads.

The facility is large enough for a regulation size infield and has six hitting tunnels and four pitching mounds, said Jim Richards, owner and general manager of the Bend Elks.

Richards also is manager of the Elks, which is a member of the West Coast Collegiate League and plays summer-league baseball at Vince Genna Stadium.

“We’re hoping to supplement the shortage of baseball fields in this town,” Richards said. “The facility will be available to youth baseball, high school and adult leagues. All organizations that play baseball and softball and experience a shortage of practice facilities can use our facility.”

The field house also can be used by other turf-sports teams, including soccer and lacrosse, looking for an indoor facility during Central Oregon’s long winters, he said.

Richards originally opened batting cages in 1997 for his two sons and friends in a 2,400-square-foot building, but in 2001 moved to a new facility in a 7,500-square-foot commercial warehouse off Reed Market Road, he said. He also branched off into selling athletic supplies in the second building and will continue that in the new field house, he said.

The building will become headquarters for the Bend Elks, he said.

The baseball club has been the stadium operator since the early 1980s, leasing the space from the Bend Metro Park and Recreation District, Richards said.

The construction of the field house became possible after the district agreed to a long-term, 30-year lease, Richards said. The project is expected to be completed by late this month.

— Jeff McDonald, The Bulletin

What’s going up