Any number of new athletic fields are welcome in Roanoke, where consultants have told city parks and recreation officials that they need more than 20 additional fields to meet the community’s needs.

Valley AFC’s project will finally get underway as the Roanoke Star soccer club works toward opening six fields on land rented from the city on the former Countryside Golf Course site. Meanwhile, the city has long-term plans to replace low-quality grass fields on the old Victory Stadium on Reserve Avenue site with two artificial turf fields and other grass fields.

Andrew Gentiluomo, a Valley AFC coach and project manager for its soccer complex, said it required help from a mix of people to get to this point.

“A lot of people came with little chunks of magic,” he said.

Landowner sought industrial buyer first

The land was formerly owned by Roanoke Valley IDICO, a private organization formed decades ago to foster economic and industrial development. The group initially agreed to sell the site to Valley AFC nearly four years ago, then changed its mind first to sell it to a propane facility, which fell through, and then search for another industrial buyer.

When that didn’t happen, the owner agreed to sell the land to the soccer club. That was nearly a year and a half ago. The club hoped to close within a couple of months.

Since then, Gentiluomo said, the club struggled for a while to find financing for the purchase. Mainline banks weren’t interested because lending money to a nonprofit buying “unfinished” land seemed too risky.

He finally turned to Del. Sam Rasoul, D-Roanoke, a former intern of his, for help. Rasoul referred him to Virginia Community Capital, a nonprofit community development lender based in Christiansburg, which agreed to finance the deal.

Environmental testing was final hurdle

Soon after that, the purchase was bogged down by environmental testing. Gentiluomo said a process they thought would take maybe five weeks and cost under $15,000 ended up taking four months and costing $38,000. A federal grant, facilitated by Roanoke officials, paid part of that cost, Gentiluomo said. The city kicked in funding for additional required testing and expedited results.

The all-clear came just two weeks before the club’s approved financing agreement was scheduled to expire, according to Gentiluomo.

The club hopes to have up to five fields ready for play by spring. Long term, Gentiluomo said, the facility can host the club’s growing tournament, which in its third year is hosting about 70 teams from Northern Virginia to North Carolina.

The club also has a major fundraising push ahead of it to raise the estimated $7 million it will take to complete it. Valley AFC already received some sponsorship money from Carilion Clinic that helped with the purchase of the land. Roanoke Star received a similar contribution from Carilion.

The new fields “support our mission of helping to improve healthier communities, especially when they benefit children and families in our community,” said Shirley Holland, Carilion’s vice president for planning and community development.

Will Trinkle is director of IDICO, which sold the land to Roanoke Valley IDICO a few years ago. His group owns adjacent land that Valley AFC has been leasing for practice fields.

About half the site is in a flood plain, Trinkle said.

“If you can’t build on it, what are you doing to do with it?” he said. The soccer complex, he said, is a great fit with Roanoke’s push to become an outdoors hub.

Trinkle, also president and CEO of CW Francis Real Estate, brokered the deal from start to finish but returned half of his commission to Valley AFC to support the project.

Staff writer Kylee Sapp

contributed to this report.

If that happens, a few fields on the site could be set up with limited effort and investment and be in use by the end of the year, Valley AFC officials say. Fully complete, the complex could generate $20 million a year in economic impact from a small number of tournaments, they said.

“It’s a perfect place for a soccer complex in so many ways,” said Steve Simon, president of Valley AFC’s board.

Flat, open spaces large enough for so many fields are almost nonexistent in the Roanoke Valley. That’s precisely why it took so long to convince Roanoke Valley IDICO to sell it. Such sites are also valuable for business development.

Valley AFC hoped to buy the land in 2013. The club had even agreed on a price with the owner — $575,000.

Roanoke Valley IDICO had acquired the land the year before, from IDICO, a separate group in which the former was a partner. Roanoke Valley IDICO got the property as part of a deal in which IDICO bought out its interest.

The belief at the time was that Roanoke Valley IDICO would in turn sell the land to Valley AFC, but there was no formal agreement. In the meantime, Inergy Services LLC had proposed a propane tank farm, along with a rail siding, for the site, and that offer was more attractive to Roanoke Valley IDICO, and more in line with the kind economic development the group was intended to foster.

The tank farm deal fell apart amid vehement protests from neighbors, but Roanoke Valley IDICO decided to try to find another industrial user before selling to Valley AFC.

“I think the feeling of the board was, let’s give it one more try,” said Jay Turner, president of Roanoke Valley IDICO. In the ensuing year or so, a few people looked at it, but no one made an offer.

“I think everybody appreciated the fact that it was going to be futile,” Turner said.

In the meantime, Valley AFC rented 5 acres adjacent to the site from IDICO and set up two practice fields there.

Andrew Gentiluomo, a leader with Valley AFC, said his club had stayed in touch with the owners and earlier this year decided to just make another offer. To their surprise, Roanoke Valley IDICO countered the offer and the negotiations were on. Neither side would divulge the sale price. The land is assessed for tax purposes at $226,800.

“I’m just really very happy that the soccer group is going to have it. The land probably lays better for that kind use than anything else,” Turner said. “It’s good for the city’s economy and it shows off the city.”

Some contingencies remain to be resolved, including financing and zoning.

The club, which is a nonprofit, has 1,800 to 2,300 players, Simon said. The club had revenue of more than $400,000 in 2012 according to publicly available tax records.

The land is zoned for industrial use, and Valley AFC could apply for a rezoning, but Roanoke’s planning staff is proposing a change to the city zoning ordinance that, if approved by the Roanoke City Council, would make recreation a by-right use in that zoning classification.

That would allow the sale to close this summer and work to develop a few fields on the eastern portion of the site to begin right away.

The club will also have to get to work raising $7.6 million to complete the full project, which features two artificial turf fields, a plaza, restrooms and locker rooms, and more than 400 parking spaces. The entrance would be from 13th Street, according to plan developed by engineering firm Draper Aden.

Club members will be asked to contribute a modest amount, Gentiluomo and Simon said, so they have a stake in the project, but donors will cover the bulk of the cost.

“The burden can’t be all on the players,” Simon said.

Valley AFC currently leases the Merriman soccer complex in Roanoke County. As fields are developed at the southeast Roanoke site, money spent on that lease can be redirected toward the project, Simon said.

Once the facility is able to host tournaments, it can be financially self-sustaining, he said.

Simon said one of the benefits of the move for Valley AFC is to build connections in the city, since it’s near downtown and the Roanoke River Greenway, and especially in the adjoining southeast neighborhood.

“It just expands the footprint of the club,” he said.

The additional fields, though private, will get some use on a lease basis, and will help address a dearth of athletic fields in the area, particularly the city.

According to industry standards, Roanoke Parks and Recreation Director Steve Buschor said, Roanoke’s population needs 18 more full-sized fields and three youth-sized fields to be fully served.

Even private fields help, because they take pressure off municipal fields, Buschor said. In Valley AFC’s case, that pressure will come off the fields they currently use in Roanoke County.

Still, Buschor called Valley AFC’s plans a plus.

“I don’t necessarily see it as a boon to us, but it is a boon to the economy and the community as well,” he said. “Anytime we get more places for kids to play, we like that.”

The city has its own plans to improve the quality of athletic fields on the former Victory Stadium site, including adding two artificial turf fields, to create an eight-field complex in the River’s Edge area.

But Buschor said the need for fields and tournament facilities is so great, he doesn’t view Valley AFC’s facility as competition.

The city could use more of its own fields, even with the addition of fields being developed at Countryside by the Roanoke Star soccer club, and Valley AFC’s plans.

“Then we’re starting to get really close to what this community needs,” he said.