A new building being erected on the Elkhart County 4-H Fairgrounds will be home to future Forest River events and rallies and will include space available for public rental.
It was announced last week that Forest River, Inc. and the Peter J. Liegl Foundation made equal financial contributions to build a massive indoor complex that will bear the two organizations’ names.
Elkhart County 4-H Fair General Manager Shelly Steury said the 47,500-square-foot complex is being built where the current main entrance to the fairgrounds is located. Steury said nearly everything in that area is portable and can be relocated without disruption.
The building will be home to the Forest River Owners Group (FROG) Rally, as well as other RV manufacturers’ rallies.
“As a non-profit organization, we have a lot of strong relationships with all the local manufacturers, and most of them hold their national rallies here at our fairgrounds,” Steury said. “This building will help accommodate those and other future events.”
The complex will be configured in a way that makes it a desirable rental space for large events.
“I would say 50% of the space will be the show arena and bleachers, and 50% will be livestock pens,” Steury said. “Those are all portable, so they will only be in the building during fair time. Off season, the building will be empty to set up however the event using the building will need.”
Steury said the reputation of Peter Liegl and Forest River speak for themselves in the Elkhart area.
“I did not have any interaction with [Liegl] over the years, but certainly growing up here, I knew who he was, and I knew what he did,” Steury said. “He was somebody you would read about in the newspaper or see on TV for always being involved in the community.”
Forest River describes Liegl as a visionary leader who transformed the RV industry, one of Indiana’s proudest citizens and one of its most generous philanthropists.
Liegl founded Forest River in Elkhart in 1996 and sold the multi-billion company to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in 2005.
After the sale, he stayed at the helm of the company until shortly before he passed in November of 2024.
The Forest River, Inc. and Peter J. Liegl Ag and Community Expo is one part of the non-profit 4-H club’s expansion project.
The multi-phase project includes a Health & Wellness Center, expanded campground accommodations with full hook-up campsites and improving several livestock barns.
Groundbreaking on the new facility and other renovations is scheduled for Sept. 11 with completion anticipated by summer 2027, ahead of the Elkhart County 4-H Fair.
