WELLINGTON -— A group of homeowners associations paid $2.5 million to a former NFL player to transfer his plans for a $38 million sports complex at the aging Wellington Community Park to Village Park instead.
Residents from the Mallet Hill and Southfields neighborhoods negotiated with Jon Bostic’s development team to move the Wellington Sports Academy away from South Shore Boulevard. Mallet Hill paid $1 million toward the move and Southfields $500,000, the village said.
Joining them was Wellington Lifestyle Partners, the company linked to equestrian entrepreneur Mark Bellissimo that recently won approval to build two luxury communities and a new horse showground in the village’s equestrian preserve. It put up the other $1 million.
Assistant Village Manager Ed De La Vega said Village Park, which is about 2 miles away from Wellington Community Park, will be home to the new aquatics center as well as the Wellington Sports Academy. Together, they are valued at $60 million.
“We’re excited to combine both projects,” said De La Vega. “It’ll set us apart. There isn’t anything else quite like it anywhere in the county.”
De La Vega said Bostic’s team is already working on updating the design and that he expects construction of the sports complex to catch up with the aquatics center in time to unveil both facilities next summer.
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Why was Wellington Sports Academy relocated to Village Park?
Bostic, who graduated from Palm Beach Central and the University of Florida, played linebacker for several NFL teams, most notably the Chicago Bears and the Washington Commanders. In 2022, his company, Wellington Athletics, won approval from the council to build a complex to house a baseball and softball academy, as well as training areas and indoor activity spaces.
The $38 million project is Wellington’s first public-private partnership. The village is funding $33 million of the project through bonds. Bostic’s teams will start paying back three years after the facility is operational.
Last year, representatives from Wellington Lifestyle Partners, South Fields and Mallet Hill neighborhoods offered Bostic a proposal: They would cover the costs of relocating his sports complex approved at Wellington Community Park if he would agree to the move it a site such as Village Park.
They cited concerns the sports complex wound worsen traffic along South Shore Boulevard, the entrance to Wellington’s equestrian area and the Wellington International competition complex, where WLP plans to double the exiting showgrounds and build a new horse center.
The negotiations stalled as Bostic’s group requested $5 million to move across the village, however, and it was set to break ground in Wellington Community Park this spring.
Kaitlin Guerin, an attorney representing Bostic’s group, asked the village council in April to give all parties more time to finalize the deal as the group had already agreed to cut its asking price in half.
The village council voted in favor of changing the agreement with Botic to allow the facility be built in Village Park but gave the property owners until April 19 to commit the full $2.5 million.
After eight months of negotiations, the property owners agreed to the deal and gave the money to the village, which will distribute it, De La Vega said.
Wellington hopes Sports Academy, aquatic complex at Village Park will boost ‘sports tourism’
Village Park, on Pierson Road southwest of the Mall at Wellington Green, features multipurpose fields and three indoor basketball courts. The council chose it as the new home for the village’s new $27 million aquatics center.
De La Vega said having the Wellington Sports Academy next to the aquatics complex and already existing indoor basketball courts will allow the village to grow its “sports tourism,” such as competitions and travel-team events.
“We will have all of our athletics in one central location,” De La Vega said. “It also helps us in terms of hosting tournaments.”
The groundbreaking for the new aquatics complex at Village Park is scheduled for Saturday, May 11, at 9 a.m.
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Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at [email protected] and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.
This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Florida neighborhoods pay $2.5M to move ex-NFL player’s sports academy
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