Hartford Business Journal

HARTFORDBUSINESS.COM | August 1, 2022 5 Deal Watch Vincent DiCarlo is building a 95,000-square-foot sports dome on a former tobacco field off Day Hill Road in Windsor. HBJ PHOTO | STEVE LASCHEVER Field of Dreams Entrepreneurs turn from safer investments, career options to pursue ambitious sports-focused mixed-use development in Windsor By Michael Puffer mpuffer@hartfordbusiness.com V incent DiCarlo shuttered his home-based marketing business three years ago, devoting his time and energy into building a 95,000-square-foot sports dome in a former tobacco field off Day Hill Road in Windsor. His wife Cheryl, a creative marketing director with ESPN, carries the household bills. DiCarlo works on designs, marketing, wooing investors, chasing bankers and numerous other steps needed to launch the roughly $14 million development. Ground was finally broken this spring on the Day Hill Dome following more than a year of COVID-19- related delays. Today, the footprint of the future 82-foot-tall structure can be seen in a field of concrete and drainage structures. DiCarlo aims to finish in December. His dome project is a key feature in developer Mark Greenberg's vision for a sports-anchored mixed-use development on more than 150 acres he has stitched together, parcel by parcel, off Day Hill Road since 2006. Greenberg said thousands of people already visit 11 on-site softball fields run by Fastpitch Nation every weekend. The dome and plans to add additional fields will draw even more. Those crowds will feed hotels, restaurants, retail, entertainment and other amenities planned for Greenberg's property assemblage along Day Hill Road. In turn, the amenities will make the privately-run sports facilities more attractive for tournaments and other events. Like DiCarlo, Greenberg and several entrepreneurs drawn to the site have turned from safer career and investment options to pursue their passions. And they are of the mindset that if they build out their vision, people will come. Field of dreams Standing in a field of waist-high grass at one end of his Windsor properties, Greenberg acknowledged it would have been much easier, and quite possibly more lucrative, to sell his land for warehouse development. Windsor and surrounding towns have been the center of a logistics boom over the past decade. "I don't want that," Greenberg said. "It's not all about the money. This is about a passion for athletics. This is my athletic dream." Greenberg said his vision began to form three years ago after he leased land at 1001 Day Hill Road to Fastpitch Nation, which built 11 softball fields. Greenberg said tournaments bring in players and families from up and down the East Coast. "Once I saw Fastpitch was successful and I came down on weekends and saw the tremendous number of people at the games, I thought this could be something we could expand to the rest of the property," Greenberg said. According to an analysis for the Connecticut Convention & Sports Bureau by Destinations International, visitors over the past year to Fastpitch Nation generated $11.2 million in regional spending, including 8,555 hotel nights, along with visits to restaurants, retail and elsewhere. That resulted in an estimated $742,039 in taxes for the state. Shortly after Fastpitch Nation opened its Windsor fields in 2019, DiCarlo was introduced to Greenberg by Richard Correia, executive vice president with brokerage firm RM Bradley. DiCarlo had called Correia for help finding a location for his sports dome. In a meeting at a Dunkin' Donuts, DiCarlo and Greenberg bonded over the common experience as parents of athletes. Both had traveled to less-than-ideal facilities. Both had fallen asleep in their cars during long practices. Both had traveled out of state to facilities far removed from restaurants and hotels. Greenberg also introduced DiCarlo to David Rocha, owner of Fastpitch Nation. "When he started telling me about how good he's doing here and how it was a home run – excuse the pun – I was like, 'OK Mark, this is something we have to do,' " DiCarlo said. "There's a great synergy and when you start talking about hotels and restaurants and brewpubs and things like that … you really can't find something like this. It's really unique. It's really special. It's a passion if you will. We are really chasing a dream." Dreams don't come easy By the time DiCarlo met Greenberg, he had already planned to shutter his home marketing business, abandoning a six-figure annual salary to realize his dream. Since then, DiCarlo has emptied his savings and retirement accounts. The sports dome was a hard sell to banks, especially with all the headlines about COVID-19 crushing youth sports. DiCarlo and Rocha say private facilities, however, thrived through the pandemic. When public programs closed, parents looked for alternatives. Ultimately, Greenberg became a partner with DiCarlo in the Day Hill Dome, committing $2 million of his own and helping to convince bankers to loan the rest. DiCarlo and Greenberg say funding is in place. Supply chain problems have created uncertainty as to when some building materials will arrive. Even so, customers are already putting deposits down for whenever the dome opens. "Pre-bookings for the dome have been out of control, better than our best possible imagination," Greenberg said. The Day Hill Dome's first phase will include a roughly five-acre field of solar panels to help defray energy costs. There will be a single grass outdoor field and two artificial turf fields. The facilities will take up about 21 acres, Greenberg said. A second phase — occupying 15 acres — will include four more fields and an enclosed field house for hard-court sports like basketball and volleyball, Greenberg said.

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