New multimillion dollar gymnastics facility coming to Springfield area

A new gymnastics facility is in the works, according to a commercial permit filed with the City of Springfield Building and Zoning Department on June 13.

The new gymnastics facility will be located at 3400 Gateway Drive in Springfield. The 1.12-acre lot that the facility is being built on sold for $209,000 in 2023, according to Realtor.com.

The permit valued the new construction at $2,880,000. Architects with Steckel-Parker Architects, Inc. will be designing the building under contractor Joyner Construction Services Inc. Electrical contracting will be performed by Robs Electric, while plumbing contracting will be done by Snell Enterprises.

The property owner of the lot is Springfield Gymnastics Center LLC, who also operates the more than 14 thousand-square-foot SGC gym on the west side of Springfield. The gym has been open since 2017 and many of the coaches have been part of the Central Illinois gymnastics arena for several years.

Brad Epperson, who coaches and owns the Springfield Gymnastics facility and Don Steckel of Steckel-Park did not respond to interview requests.

The future gymnastics facility could be potentially used as a new training facility or arena.

Before opening the SGC in 2017 Epperson, who has taught for 37 years and is a professional member of USA Gymnastics, had previously worked at gymnasiums in Texas, South Carolina and most recently in Peoria.

Claire Grant writes about business, growth and development and other news topics for The State Journal-Register. She can be reached at CLGrant@gannett.com; and on X (Formerly known as Twitter): @Claire_Granted