Edinburg, Vipers sport shelter in $7.5M facility

EDINBURG – The City of Edinburg and the Rio Grande Valley Vipers have broken ground on a new $7.5 million, 84,000-sf sports and wellness center at 315 E. Palm Dr. Construction is expected to take six to eight months.

The current 20,000-sf Edinburg Parks and Recreation center will be torn down along with the South Park baseball fields to be replaced with the new facility, which will contain:

• multiple basketball courts;
• gymnasiums;
• dance studio;
• boxing gym;
• game room; and
• a computer room.

Most of the funding will come from the city and Edinburg Development Corporation (EDC) while being leased out to the Vipers. About $1.8 million will come from federal funding, as the facility will also be utilized as a dome shelter for natural disasters.

The Vipers’ coaches will office out of the facility, but the organization’s business staff will remain at their current offices in McAllen. The facility will also have three restaurants, according to Gus Garcia, EDC Director.

The Vipers are a National Basketball Association Development League team who won their second championship last season. The Houston Rockets have control of the D-League team’s basketball operations while local ownership retains control of the business.

Read more at The Monitor.