Joe Butler is an Indianola native and a member of the 2001 Indianola High School boys’ basketball state championship team.

Today, he’s the CEO of Indianola-based Downing Construction, which built the recently completed Iowa Suns basketball fieldhouse in Indianola, a project Butler hopes will act as a springboard to further growth on the 40 acres of land the company owns on the north side of the community of just more than 16,000 people.

The 30,000-square-foot Iowa Suns facility, just east of Theissen’s on East Trail Ridge Avenue, is the second project Downing Construction has done in the development, called the Commons at Summercrest. The first was a multi-tenant retail center that includes a Starbucks coffee shop, a Buffalo Wild Wings Go restaurant, a chiropractor and a beauty shop.

“We still have other space available in that building and we plan to do multiple of those multi-tenant style buildings around here to find the right uses that can complement both Indianola and the Suns,” Butler said.

Butler and his partner in the venture, Aaron Fichter, started the Iowa Suns competitive youth basketball club four years ago. They currently serve as directors.

The fieldhouse features three full-size courts, two concession areas with food provided by Main Street Cafe out of Ankeny, a practice and training room, and a mezzanine area where you can watch the action on all three courts at once. There is also bleacher seating along each court.

There are digital sponsorship boards lining the walls of the facility. The names of the facility’s three major sponsors appear in big letters, one on each of the courts. Those sponsors include Downing Construction, DeYarman Ford and People’s Bank.

A colorful mural by Des Moines artist Siriaco Garcia that illustrates the culture of Indianola and life in Iowa, covers a wall near one of the courts.

In the entry corridor, there is a picture wall featuring images of players who competed in the program during its first four years.

Butler said the facility allows teams to practice and play games year round. Before the facility was built, the program was a spring and summer entity, renting gym space from local schools when those teams weren’t using them. He said those relationships remains, allowing the Iowa Suns program to expand beyond the new facility when needed.

“We knew that if we were going to make the jump into a full, year-round program, including fall and winter, which is the peak season for basketball, we needed our own space,” Butler said. “We knew we needed our own space to be able to dictate our own schedule, so when my partners at Downing Construction and I decided to do this development, the timing, the usage and the draw of people all lined up.”

There are about 250 kids playing in the Iowa Suns spring and summer program. The boys program ranges from third grade to juniors in high school. On the girls side, players range from fifth grade to high school.

While many of the teams come from the Des Moines metro, some come from as far away as Indiana for tournaments, Butler said.

He said the Iowa Suns fieldhouse draws people weekly for practices and training, and then hosts tournaments with 24 to 30 teams playing in one day, and as many as 48 teams playing over two days on the weekends. Those tournaments draw between 1,500 and 2,000 people a day to the facility, including family and friends of players.

“We are increasing the population of Indianola by 10% every time we do an event here, so we’re really hoping to make a huge impact on the local businesses,” Butler said.

He said the hope is that by bringing that many people to the community on weekends it will generate further interest in the development and growth in the area.

Butler’s vision for the area includes restaurants, retail, housing, either townhomes or single-family, and a hotel.

“We’re investing money up front to be able to attract the right things,” he said. “We’re open to selling ground. We’re open to developing ourselves and leasing back, but we definitely want to find the right users that understand the opportunity.”

Born and raised in Indianola, Butler went to Iowa State University where he got a degree in construction engineering. He returned as an intern at Downing Construction, later joining the company full time in 2006 and becoming CEO in 2017.

He said it took a lot of collaboration to make the Iowa Suns fieldhouse a reality.

“Some of this comes down to my wife, Leah, keeping really good notes over the past four to five years being in other facilities and seeing things that we do, or more importantly, don’t want,” said Butler, whose two sons, Grady and Bennett, play in the league. “It involved a lot of dreaming and talking.”

That included everything from acoustics, to lighting and traffic flow in and out of the facility.

Butler also said creativity of the architectural team and interior designers at Downing Construction played a big role in the final product.

“We turned them loose with a little bit of direction and they came up with some pretty cool things,” he said. “I’m an engineer by trade and creativity is not my strong suit, so I just get the heck out of the way.”

Bryce Johnson, the city of Indianola’s director of economic development, said the basketball facility and Commons at Summercrest development has and will continue to be a “tremendous opportunity for our city.”

“Beyond the direct economic impact, this project brings steady activity from families attending tournaments who spend money locally, visit downtown to eat and shop, and other tourism destinations,” he said.

Johnson said a key component of the development is the infrastructure improvements that will occur as a result. Willowcrest Avenue and North Sixth Street both will be extended, with Downing building the North Sixth Street extension and the city using Tax Increment Financing to pay for the extension of Willowcrest Avenue.

Using TIF funding will allow the city to use revenue generated from future development to pay for roadway improvements over time.

“Without this planned development, it’s unlikely these critical roadway improvements would occur, and Willowcrest Avenue and North Sixth Street would remain as they are today,” Johnson said.

Butler described bringing the Iowa Suns facility and the hoped-for further growth to his hometown as “special.”

“All these kinds of projects get talked about as an idea and to be able to understand the idea and to be able to execute it, both for the Suns and for the community,” Butler said. “These are the types of developments that usually catapult development and I’m hoping this is just the first step in several years of really good growth on the north side of Indianola.”