Discover Kalamazoo outlines plan for indoor youth sports complex funded by hotel assessment; hotel ratification required

Discover Kalamazoo presented a proposal to the Kalamazoo County Board of Commissioners on Feb. 18 for a new indoor hard-court youth sports facility designed primarily for basketball and volleyball and intended to bring both local programming and tournament-generated hotel nights to the county.

Project proponents said the proposed facility would contain up to eight basketball courts (two stacked levels of four courts) convertible for volleyball or indoor turf, and that market analysis suggests the region lacks a state-of-the-art court facility. Discover Kalamazoo projected roughly 36,000 incremental hotel room nights annually, the creation of more than 600 full- and part-time jobs and an increase in hotel occupancy in shoulder months that would help hoteliers.

To finance construction Discover Kalamazoo recommended using the Regional Event Center Financing Act (Public Act 340 of 2020), which allows an incremental 4% accommodations assessment on hotels with 35 or more rooms; the tax/assessment would be implemented only after a county referendum and a subsequent ratification ballot mailed to hotel property owners. The process described in the presentation requires a quorum equal to 60% of eligible rooms and, of ballots returned in the quorum, a simple majority would enact the assessment. The county’s existing accommodations tax (Public Act 263) is separate and would not be changed by this approach; this financing tool is structured as an assessment that requires hotel owner ratification.

Discover leaders said the plan is time-sensitive, that they have narrowed more than 30 potential sites to three viable locations and that a local authority—likely formed under the Municipal Partnerships Act—would govern the facility. The presenters said local use would be scheduled Monday–Thursday and tournaments on weekends; revenue from tournaments would subsidize local programming.

Commissioners asked about governance and participation, suggesting the authority should include hotel and user-group representation and at least one youth participant on the board. Some commissioners raised governance and equity concerns about the hotel-ballot ratification mechanism, noting that the 60% quorum and room-weighted voting gives larger property owners greater influence. Discover said staff and clerks are preparing a referendum ordinance and a timeline that could allow implementation as soon as July 1 if hotel ratification and the county process succeed.

No formal action or vote was taken on the proposal at the Feb. 18 meeting; Discover requested feedback and signaled it would return with ordinance language and a proposed schedule. The board asked staff to provide additional information on hotel sizes and the distribution of eligible rooms, and several commissioners expressed broad support for an indoor facility that increases youth access to courts and boosts sports tourism.