A $12 million sports complex slated for Barnstable, Mass., which is backed by former Green Bay Packers head coach Mike Sherman and has been mired in delays and lawsuits, may now have to be relocated.
According to the Cape Cod Times, the Total Athletics of Cape Cod sports complex, which will include an ice rink and an indoor turf field, may not even be built on the 8.9 acres initially cleared for the facility.
The only evidence of a building project at the site are neatly piled stacks of metal, which will be used to form the pre-engineered metal structure. The metal, which is unpaid for, has been there since September 2017.
Court documents show that By Design Construction sued Sherman’s company, Total Athletics, alleging the construction firm was owed more than $900,000 for the project. By Design claimed missed payments, misrepresentations, problems financing construction of the complex and a failure by Total Athletics to pay its bills.
That suit was settled for unlisted sum, but Total Athletics has since been hit with another suit filed by American Express Nation Bank for unpaid debt of $62,840.
The project has stalled at its current site, but Sherman said that he has new investors and the group is now looking for a “more accessible site.”
“We have a site we want,” he said. “We still have to get it.”
Martin Reilly, a Hyannis-based unpaid consultant for the project, said the company is two months away from announcing a new location and a new team of investors. He said the project will be renamed from Total Athletics of Cape Cod to Cape Cod Sports Club, promising a sports complex “as iconic as the beaches of Cape Cod.”
The current architectural plan, which Reilly estimated cost $250,000, will be “modified and refined,” he said.
Although the park has been stalled at its current location, that should not affect a $3.7 million state grant to the town of Barnstable for intersection improvements, upgraded public utilities and extensive sidewalks in the area.
