A massive $75 million sports complex featuring huge domes for indoor football and baseball, as well as ice hockey, basketball and soccer, is being proposed for northwestern Indiana.

Called Catalyst Lifestyles Sport Resort, the venue in Portage, Ind., would expand far beyond sports, according to developer Tony Czapla.

Plans for the 170-acre site, north of I-94 about 40 miles southeast of Chicago, call for an indoor drive-in movie theater, an indoor water park and a 150-room hotel.

A campground and a 15-acre recreational lake with an island featuring an adventure tower are included in renderings provided to IndyStar by Catalyst Lifestyles, a private development group in Portage. There would also be a cable wakeboard park, where participants are “towed” by a cable system rather than boats.

The complex would cater to the burgeoning youth sports movement and, if developed,  likely would give Westfield’s Grand Park — a 400-acre youth sports park that opened in 2014 and draws athletes from across the state and nation — some competition.

“If they don’t have a kid playing travel ball, then they have a brother who has a kid playing travel ball,” said Czapla, managing director for Catalyst Lifestyles. “It’s huge.”

But the Portage project is not a “build it and they will come” situation, said Czapla. The people already are in Portage.

“Why Portage? It’s simple,” he said. “Indiana Dunes draw 3 million people every year. Portage has nearly 29 million people (within a 200-mile radius). It’s perfect.”

Czapla presented the proposal to Portage’s Development Review Committee on Tuesday, and it was approved. Plans for the complex will go before the Planning Commission the first week of March. If passed then, the proposal will go before the City Council.

“If everybody signs off and is on board, we should be moving dirt here by March,” Czapla said.

A portion of the project could open by the end of the year, he said.

The sports complex would be about 150 miles from Indianapolis. And while the idea of such a venue sounds good, getting such projects built hasn’t always been easy.

GK Sports and Entertainment in April revealed plans to build a $76.4 million recreational sports center in Fishers — with a 6,000-seat arena, a 245,000-square-foot fieldhouse, a 630-space parking garage, several office buildings, and eventually, a hotel with meeting space.

Plans for that project are on hold, as Fishers sorts out the incentive package to complete the deal. Czapla said the Portage complex is entirely privately funded with no public monies sought.

Meanwhile, Grand Park in Westfield is in the process of getting bigger, building two indoor sports venues on its campus.

Czapla has pitched similar projects in the past decade in Chesterton and Hobart. He said those are not good  comparisons to the Portage project.

“I wouldn’t call them tries,” he said. “We had looked at other locations, but never had secured land on those. I don’t call those tries.”

Catalyst purchased the 170 acres in June from the city’s Redevelopment Commission for $6 million, to be paid over 10 years.

Follow IndyStar reporter Dana Benbow on Twitter: @DanaBenbow.