For more than two years, the nonprofit Eagle’s Nest Leadership Corp. has been pitching its vision for a multimillion-dollar sports center on Erie’s east side that focuses on supporting underprivileged youth.
That facility is now beginning to take shape.
Construction workers began work earlier this summer on the $3 million project next to the Eagle’s Nest campus at 1129 Pennsylvania Ave.
“Erie needs this,” said Bishop Dwane Brock, pastor of Victory Christian Center and CEO of Eagle’s Nest. “We’re building a real, multifaceted recreation program here for the kids who need it and for the community as a whole.
“Everything will be instructional,” Brock said. “There will be no freelancing with programming at all.”
Here’s more information about the project, which has the support of Erie Mayor Joe Schember’s administration.
What is being built
The proposed sports center will be built on the Eagle’s Nest campus, next to the Victory Christian Center church building.
Brock said the one-story building will be about 10,000 square feet, with a large paved parking lot accessible from East 12th Street. It will include a multi-purpose gymnasium with new wood flooring; boys’ and girls’ locker rooms; a vestibule, weight room/fitness center; and meeting space, among other amenities.
“We have a robotics program. We have all kinds of educational recreational activities that we can do, including basketball and pickleball for seniors,” Brock said. “Wrestling tournaments, volleyball, double-dutch. We have those plans.
“We’re solving problems with the youth that the city can’t solve,” Brock continued. “We’re talking about a lot of violence from your youth, and some of them don’t have the right structure at home. So our responsibility is to be surrogate parents, to let them know that there are alternatives in life, and to teach them that actions have consequences.”
What is the construction schedule?
Brock said he hopes to have the facility open as early as November, but no later than spring 2025.
How is the gym financed?
The original estimate for the gym was about $1 million. According to Brock, that estimate has since tripled as several delays impacted the project.
“We still need about $600,000 and we’re trying to raise that privately from some potential donors,” Brock said.
The financing already secured includes a $675,000 forgivable loan from one of the city’s Economic Development Revolving Loan funds. A forgivable loan allows borrowers to have the balance of their loan forgiven if they meet certain conditions.
The city has historically provided forgivable loans for community development projects.
The Erie City Council approved a $675,000 grant in January 2022 from the $76 million allocation of federal American Rescue Plan funding the city received during the COVID-19 pandemic.
However, in June 2023, city officials made a change to the financing and provided a forgivable loan to accelerate the project.
Erie City Councilman Mel Witherspoon has been an outspoken supporter of the project, saying the facility “is for the kids. It’s for the community.”
Brock has indicated in the past that other forms of funding include private donations and tax breaks.
Contact Kevin Flowers at kflowers@timesnews.com. Follow him on X on @ETNbloemen.
This article originally appeared on the Erie Times-News: Construction has begun on the Eagle’s Nest sports center in East Erie
