A new 40,000-square-foot, climate-controlled sports complex in Bayside will ensure local residents can stay active year-round.
Local lawmakers and kids met at the Bay Terrace Center of the Samuel Field Y on July 10 to announce a permanent indoor sports space set to rise on the premises. The project at 212th Street and 23rd Avenue was funded with allocations from Councilman Paul Vallone, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson, totaling $2.1 million.
The space, which will be built at the site of the temporary tennis bubble at the community center, will be climate-controlled and feature turf fields for soccer, football, lacrosse and baseball, basketball courts, a tennis court and a fitness and wellness space. Kids at the announcement who attend the center’s day program also voiced an interest in spaces to play golf, rugby and wiffle ball.
“The beauty of it is, we can design it together,” Vallone said.
The project creates a year-round space for the center’s pre-K for all participants, as well as the special needs community and area sports organizations. It will also serve as an indoor recreation space for the area’s senior population.
“We want to make sure that Queens remains the place where families come to raise their kids,” Katz said. “To all the kids that are behind us: we hope you know how lucky you truly are to have a community who cares so deeply about the future generation.”
Lawrence Gottlieb, chairman of the board of Samuel Field Y, called the project “transformational.”
“We have dreamed about this for a long time but it would not have been possible without the unbelievable support of Council member Paul Vallone, Queens Borough President Melinda Katz and City Council Speaker Corey Johnson,” Gottlieb said. “We are forever grateful to them for their support and commitment.”
Samuel Field Y provides social services and programs to 35,000 people annually at over 50 sites throughout Queens. The Samuel Field Y’s Bay Terrace Pool and Tennis Center currently offers early childhood and after-school programs, summer camps and social services to individuals with disabilities, older adults and victims of family violence.
