HOLYOKE — The city of Holyoke revealed a first look at an ambitious $100 million project that would see the installation of a large sports complex spanning multiple locations across the city, hoping to capitalize on its history as the birthplace of volleyball to spur future economic growth.

Preliminary designs and renderings were on display at a press conference held Tuesday morning at the city’s current International Volleyball Hall of Fame at 444 Dwight St., a location it shares with the Children’s Museum. The new project calls for the creation of a new building to host the hall of fame, along with 16 volleyball and basketball courts and the installation of other activities such as an arcade, bowling alley and rock climbing. A new hotel is also included in the plans during a later phase of the project.

In total, more than 140,000 square feet of indoor space will be used to host the complex, according to the city. That doesn’t include additional areas for outdoor activities and parking, the details of which are still being worked on.

The project is being backed by Cesar Ruiz, a Holyoke native and the president and CEO of Golden Years Home Care in East Longmeadow, who has already invested $175,000 into the project, according to city officials.

At Tuesday’s press conference, Ruiz said the complex would turn Holyoke into “the sports capital of New England.”

“We decided to approach this thing as an Olympic-style venue, with multiple sites throughout this community, utilizing present assets and new assets,” Ruiz said. “We’re going to create a facility and concept that’s going to draw not only youth but also seniors.”

Design plans for the complex are being carried out by The Sports Facilities Companies of Clearwater, Fla. The organization’s website lists more than 40 sports and recreation venues it has helped build or manage over the years, spanning more than 20 states.

“They eat and breathe sports complexes,” Ruiz said of the company. “They have been on board since February of last year, doing the feasibility study and planning on this concept.”

Andrew Melendez, another native of the city and the founder and director of the Latino Economic Development Corp. in Springfield, was named as the chief operating officer for the project. Melendez noted that volleyball outranked sports like basketball, baseball and American football in terms of its international popularity.

“A billion people play volleyball across the world,” Melendez said. “We want them to be proud when they walk into the sports complex in Holyoke, where they can be honored to receive their induction to the Volleyball Hall of Fame.”

Melendez said the facility would hire 12 full-time and 30 part-time employees and that the complex would bring a $41 million annual economic impact to Holyoke. He also expressed the desire to create a memorandum of understanding with Holyoke public schools to allow students in the district to train at the center.

“I’m a Holyoker, born and raised, I went to the public schools, and I would love that opportunity to be a Holyoke Knight and be able to train and condition at the sports complex,” Melendez said, referencing the district’s high school mascot.

Holyoke Mayor Josh Garcia said that the city was looking to get additional stakeholders for the proposed complex to secure funding and that final design had yet to be reached.

“We still have more work to do,” Garcia said. “The greatest benefit behind this initiative is we have private interests from someone putting up his own capital.”

Though locations for the complex area have yet to be announced, areas of interest include uptown close to the Interstate 90 and 91 highways, along with additional locations downtown and within the city’s public parks, according to Aaron Vega, the city’s director of planning & economic development.

“We want to make some of this easy to get to for teams from the region and out of state,” Vega said. “We’ll be looking at downtown and we’ve got a couple of locations we’re looking at. This would be more of a facility that may have more to do with entertainment that would be a compliment to the large facility.”

The project will be carried out in several phases, with the first phase — the construction of the new hall of fame and outdoor sports facilities — expected to cost $50 million and $65 million and be completed by the end of 2026. In total, the project will take five to six years to complete, according to Vega.

Volleyball was invented in Holyoke in 1895 by William G. Morgan, a physical education director at the local YMCA. The city’s International Volleyball Hall of Fame currently has over 160 inductees from 25 different countries.

Alexander MacDougall can be reached at amacdougall@gazettenet.com.