Local business owner looking to build multi-million dollar sports facility in Westmoreland County

Land owned by North Huntingdon Township could be leased to a local business owner who is looking to build a multi-million dollar sports facility.

Shane Larkin, the owner of N Zone Sports Westmoreland, said it’s a big project in the works.

“We’re looking to do an indoor and outdoor sports space on about a 15 to 18-acre piece of property,” he said.

That property is currently owned by North Huntingdon Township for the Public Works facility. Last month, the township and Larkin had a meeting to discuss the potential of leasing that site for this project.

“It was a great conversation with some great people, and we’re hoping that that is the first step in many towards an agreement,” Larkin told Channel 11′s Andrew Havranek.

Larkin is partnering with RocStreet Sports for this project.

Larkin wants it to have indoor and outdoor turf fields, basketball courts, pickleball courts, dek hockey and inline hockey rinks, and an indoor and outdoor track.

RocStreet is investing that $10 million for the development of this project – so that means if they end up leasing land from the township – it wouldn’t cost taxpayers.

“If it would have been on the taxpayers’ back, we wouldn’t have even started the conversation,” said Township Board of Commissioners President Jason Atwood.

Atwood said while the talks are still in the very early stages, he’s excited to see the possibility of development on the western part of Route 30.

“A facility like this would just bring in an extra dynamic to the economy,” he told Channel 11.

The township wants to see more detailed plans and hear from the public on the proposal before entering into any land lease agreement. They say if they do, the money paid to the township for the lease would go right into a “rainy day fund.”

If all goes according to plan, Larkin says they could break ground as early as this summer.

“I think that this complex we’re looking to develop could be one of the landmark sports complexes in western Pennsylvania,” Larkin said.

While Larkin said the goal is to break ground in six months, it would take a year-and-a-half before this facility would be completed.

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