An $8 million sports complex has opened in Burlington, Kentucky, on a patch of land its developer bought from the airport for just a dollar. The Bend, a 30,000-square-foot facility at 1930 Conrad Lane, features pickleball courts, indoor soccer fields and a brewpub.
The project traces back to 2018, when Brad Trauth purchased the roughly 5-acre former airport parcel for $1, according to The Business Journals. Trauth Homes is developing the property. Trauth, an avid biker, drew inspiration from family rides and envisioned a concept like Fifty West. The wooded, undeveloped parcel had a deed restriction prohibiting residential development, a hurdle the Boone County Fiscal Court addressed in January 2025 when it held the first reading of a zoning map amendment rezoning the parcel from Rural Suburban to Industrial One, according to LINK nky.
A Trail-Adjacent Hub for Pickleball and Soccer
The facility sits alongside a multi-use path along North Bend Road, per the same Business Journals report. The trail push is already well underway: the CVG Loop Trail includes nearly 10 miles of connected trail, and funding efforts are also underway, according to Tri-State Trails.
That local corridor now feeds into something much bigger. In June, regional planners unveiled a 934-mile Northern Kentucky Regional Trails Plan connecting Boone, Kenton and Campbell counties, positioning corridors like the CVG Loop Trail as foundational infrastructure for local recreational hubs, the Cincinnati Business Courier reported.
Pickleball at The Bend
The Bend includes Hawk's Court, a pickleball destination.
Dave McIver is the facility's soccer general manager. UPfield Soccer NKY offers youth camps. The facility features both indoor and outdoor turf fields, addressing the kind of field-space crunch youth sports organizers in the region have faced for years.
Hawk's Court offers court rentals to the public, and players can book courts.
Food and drink at The Bend include rotating food trucks.
Part of a Broader NKY Sports Investment Wave
The Bend's debut lands amid a broader surge in Northern Kentucky sports venue investment. In April, a group acquired the 120,000-square-foot Town & Country sports campus in Wilder for $8.57 million. NKY Fieldhouse LLC is planning $3 million in upgrades overall, and new outdoor turf has been installed, Hoodline reported in September. Between that Campbell County overhaul and The Bend's Boone County debut, the region's appetite for large-scale recreation facilities shows little sign of slowing.
