Located in Rosenberg near the Fort Bend County Fairgrounds on Hwy. 59, construction on the EpiCenter will last for 20 months, said Kevin Matocha, founder and CEO at Stonehenge Holdings LLC, the site developer for the project.
Matocha said this is a strategic location for the facility, which among other uses, will be a staging area and venue for Fort Bend County Fair & Rodeo and Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo events.
“In this part of the region, there’s not a quality facility that can house the people that we need and has the facilities for all the trucks and trailers and staging,” Matocha said. “This will certainly benefit the existing fairground facilities.”
The EpiCenter will also be equipped to host sporting events and tournaments as well as graduations and can be utilized as an emergency shelter in the event of a natural disaster, Matocha said. In a graduation-type setting, he said the building will seat 10,400 people.
“We have the ability, due to the size and the facility’s design, to even host a regional NCAA [basketball] event here if need be,” Matocha said.
In 2017, Fort Bend County Commissioners Court authorized a study to evaluate the demand and feasibility for a multipurpose facility, Precinct 1 Commissioner Vincent Morales said during the EDC meeting.
Morales said the EpiCenter will be built and operate as a public-private partnership, in which costs are shared between the county and site developer to reduce the financial burden of the project on taxpayers and decrease the risk to the county.
The project’s cost, including the cost of the land, is approximately $120 million, according to previous Community Impact Newspaper reporting.
“I’m excited to get this project underway,” Matocha said.
