Saxony Beach gets new parks facility this fall
By James Feichtner
Since Saxony Beach opened in the Lake District, residents have been enjoying the area from Memorial Day to Labor Day. Offering 300 feet of sand overlooking more than 25 acres of water, the area provides residents with a great beach experience right here in Fishers. But one problem the beach currently has is its lack of restroom facilities, only offering port-a-pots on site.
Fortunately this problem will be solved for next summer’s beach season thanks to the development of Saxony Hall, a mixed-use, rentable parks facility that will be not only offering bathrooms for beach goers, but a flexible space for special events and parks programs.
“The key is always having restrooms. It’s hard to have an event if you don’t have good, clean restrooms, so that will be an important step and I think we’ll be able to do a lot once we get the building going,” Tony Elliot, Fishers Parks Director, said.
The project had been discussed in previous years as part of Saxony’s overall plan continued growth within the Lake District, but is finally seeing construction this year.
“This is a project we’ve been talking about for a long time,” Elliot said. “The city, two years ago, acquired the beach operation; maintenance of Saxony Beach, and part of that agreement with Saxony was that we would construct this recreational building on Saxony Lake. So here we are getting this construction on Saxony Hall this year.”
The hall will be right on the lake, adjacent to the beach and will offer amenities to both beach goers and public and private parties.
“It will be right on the lake at about 4,500 square feet total,” Elliot said. “About almost 2,500 square feet of usable space in the grand hall and that space will be used for weddings, parks programs. It will be rentable by the public. So the building will have restrooms, it will have a concession/kitchen area. It will have an office as well. It will be a great venue for weddings or events of all kinds.”
As a park building, Saxony Hall will be a bit more high-end compared to other Fishers’ parks facilities, but still flexible to use for parks related programs.
“Billericay, the Holland building, Cumberland; those are pretty standard park buildings, but this one will be pretty unique.” Elliot said.” A little higher end materials, higher end quality than some of our other buildings just so it’s usable by weddings, so it can look formal, but also if we had a program where kids play indoor kickball they could probably get away with it and not break a chandelier.”
“That’s kind of what we see for all of buildings anyway,” Fishers Parks and Recreation Coordinator Matt Walker said. “Most of our park buildings have anything from a two-year-olds program in the morning and then at night there might be a school board meeting or something. Any buildings we have at our parks are pretty multiuse.”
For weddings and other special events, Elliot said a goal to offer the beach and the hall as a package deal will make the hall a unique venue for those interested in renting the space.
“We’ll package the properties in a way so that you could have a wedding ceremony on the beach, for example, and then move the reception over to the hall,” he said. “So we’ll package all of those different properties together to make it a really neat venue.”
“Banquets, corporate meetings, conference meetings, baby showers, graduations; it’d be a perfect venue for any of that,” Walker added.
With the beach right next door, the demand for the facility is expected to be high. So far, the hall has already had inquiries about rentals despite it not being complete.
“We’ve had several requests already to rent the building for weddings for 2016,” Elliot said. “We’ve not confirmed or booked any of those but the interest is definitely there. This venue I think is particularly unique for Indiana to have a beach, a really nice beach, and then to have this building there is a pretty spectacular amenity so I think the demand will be high.”
About Saxony Hall
Location: 13288 Pennington Rd., Fishers
Size: Total approximately 4,500 square feet. Grand Hall approximately 2,500 square feet.
Features: Grand hall, kitchen/concession area, indoor bathrooms, water front views, office area, shower for washing off sand.
Example special events: Weddings, graduations, baby showers, banquets, corporate meetings.
