Business View Magazine - October 2016 119
ket for that.” In addition, acquisition of the airport also
opened the door for the development of 66 acres of
commercial ground, east of the site.
A few miles north, Prospect Meadows Ball Fields are
coming to fruition. The proposed 17-field baseball and
softball complex will be a destination for local league
play and weekend tournaments, drawing teams from
across the Midwest. The 128-acre, $14 million com-
plex will also feature a “Miracle Field,” specially built
for people with disabilities. It is estimated that the
complex could generate up to $25 million in direct
spending in the area, each year, filling 80,000 hotel
room nights due to extended stays, while creating 150
full- and part-time jobs. “It’s a pretty big deal for the
city,” Treharne says. “We only have two viable hotels,
so if this project comes in, it’s going to be a huge eco-
nomic development driver. We have two hotels looking
at us, right now. The project is about 80 percent fund-
ed, and the hope is that they’ll be breaking ground,
next spring.”
For a community with active living in its DNA, Marion
is making great strides in developing an extensive trail
system. Its Master Trails Plan was adopted in 2014,
and provides an outline for future trails and on-street
bikeways with an emphasis on connectivity to commu-
nity destinations and enhancement of the regional trail
network. “We have a metropolitan planning organiza-
tion that is made up of representatives of all the lo-
cal communities. All federal transportation dollars are
directed to this entity and they have a long-range plan
