Area leaders dream of a $12M fairgrounds center

CELINA - Community leaders aim to create a $12 million indoor event center and arena on the west end of the Mercer County Fairground that they say would attract big events to the area and boost the local economy.

A group of stakeholders and business leaders behind the proposal seek to bring their ambitious vision to life in cooperation with the county fair board. They will roll out a fundraising campaign at the 170th Mercer County Fair beginning Friday.

If all goes according to plan, ground would be broke in August 2023 and The Grand Event Center and Market Hall would have its grand opening in the fall of 2024. The two facilities together could hold up to 6,000 people.

Fair officials all year long would be able host large scale events such as trade shows and expos, concerts, indoor truck and tractor pulls and livestock and equine shows in a venue fitting for the top ag producing county in Ohio.

"It will enhance everything that we have here," said fair manager Cara Muhlenkamp.

"And the intentions are to be used 52 weeks of the year for this facility," added fair board president Ryan Fennig.

Plans call for the construction of Grand Event Center boasting over 100,000 square feet and converting the adjacent former county engineer building into Market Hall. The two buildings would be connected by a covered outdoor walkway.

"The Grand Event Center is essentially a little bit larger than two football fields," said commitee member Allison Ryan, who is also the director of marketing and communications at MVP Dairy. "It is the only one of it's kind in a roughly 90-mile radius. So there are other similar facilities but not any that can host the indoor facility that we have to offer."

Officials stress the center would supplement what's already happening at the fairgrounds by drawing in the type of activities that it just simply doesn't have the capacity to host at the moment.

"We receive numerous phone calls over the course of the year for more national and larger scale regional shows whether it be for livestock or trade shows. It can be entertainment," Muhlenkamp pointed out. "We have quite a few national camping associations that would like to hold events here and we fall short from not having a venue that will accommodate (them)."

The area certainly has the economy and available land to book big draws but not the venue.

"It's just being able to put them all under one roof where we fall short," she said.

"The building's been designed to basically be versatile," added Ryan. "If you can dream it we should be able to figure out a way to accommodate it."

The benefits of having such a facility in Mercer County are multitudinous, said commitee member Jared Ebbing, the county's community development director.

"We want people to be here and enjoy West Central Ohio and having events here often. So that's the human factor," Ebbing said. "But the dollar-and-cents factor is big as well. You get these kind of events in here, that's an economic driver."

"If there's events here all the time … the ripple effect is real," he said. "It's no different than Eldora in the summertime."

Just one full event hosted at the center could pump more than $1.7 million into the local economy, officials said, citing the Ohio Tourism figure that the average person spent $115 on a day trip and $343 on an overnight visit in the state in 2021.

"And it's so complimentary to a lot of the other development opportunities that are going on in our region. The new restaurants, the new breweries, the new coffee shops, this brings in more customers for them," Ryan said.

Official said they have already solidified the support of numerous businesses and firmly believe they will achieve their fundraising goal.

"It's going to take some time to grow into it but the minute funds are raised and we're ready to go we're going to start soliciting these activities and these events to come into play," Muhlenkamp said.

To learn more about the proposal and sponsorship opportunities visit https://mcgrandeventcenter.com.