Mercy University has broken ground on a $19.5 million fieldhouse for its Westchester Campus, a project planned alongside new recreation areas and pedestrian routes. The campus’s geography helps explain why accounts refer to both Dobbs Ferry and Irvington: Rivertowns Dispatch reported that 31.5 of its 66 acres lie in Irvington, with the remainder in Dobbs Ferry. Mercy says the Village of Irvington approved the project in February.
The university says the Kenneth L. Bove Fieldhouse will cover 35,000 square feet and is expected to be completed in 2028. It is named for Ken Bove, a longtime university supporter and president and CEO of DCW Media, and was designed in collaboration with Alloy Design Studio, according to Mercy University.
Campus recreation, distinct from nearby public fields
The fieldhouse’s central event floor is planned at 21,000 square feet, with three courts for tennis, pickleball, volleyball and basketball. An elevated indoor walking and running track will wrap around the floor, with views of the Hudson River. A two-story wing is slated to include locker rooms, gathering and program spaces, offices and meeting areas, the university says.
The university also plans a riverfront plaza for campus and community gatherings, plus a quad connecting to the Metro-North train path. That proposed campus space is separate from Irvington’s Scenic Hudson Park, a public riverfront park with two regulation ballfields overlain by a regulation soccer field, according to the Village of Irvington. The park’s facilities do not establish whether or how the planned campus plaza will be publicly accessible.
Work extends beyond the building
The current phase includes relocated parking, outdoor recreation courts, pedestrian paths and landscaping in the north-central part of campus. A release carried by EIN Presswire says that phase is scheduled to finish in December, with fieldhouse construction and adjacent riverfront site work to follow. The overall project is targeted for completion in 2028.
The project builds on a separate campus-access effort: engineering firm McLaren describes a public-private walkway connecting Mercy students and commuters with the Ardsley-on-Hudson station. That existing connection is distinct from the new fieldhouse work; the available project account does not give the walkway’s construction date.
Mercy places the fieldhouse within its $87 million, five-year capital improvements plan. The university says classroom and specialized science and health-professions lab renovations are complete, while work has begun on the Mercy Hall complex. The fieldhouse is therefore one component of a broader campus program, not the only improvement underway.
