Kitchener Minor Baseball will be taking up residence at 777 Lawrence St in Preston later this year.
The 22,000 square foot warehouse facility at the rear of the Evon Bathroom & Kitchen Gallery will house both the Panthers programs and the elite Midwestern Ontario Bearcats, something its previous home at 41 Ardelt Place in Kitchener was struggling with due to its smaller layout.
The facility will include a turf field for defensive work, batting cages, mounds, coaches offices and a locker room.
“We needed a larger facility for our roughly 300 Kitchener players, the Midwestern Ontario BearCats players and to do our high performance training,” Marcus Horea, president of Kitchener Minor Baseball said.
“This location was the one that we thought best fit our needs.”
But why would a Kitchener based baseball association come to nearby Cambridge for their indoor needs? There’s a couple reasons, Horea says.
“It’s not that easy to find a location for this kind of use as not a lot of landlords want recreation and gyms in their facilities,” he said.
“We were on the hunt for a long time. Going back to October we worked with a realtor looking at various locations. We also govern the BearCats, which is run through the Intercounty Baseball Association, so there are players from a number of different centres that play on those teams, including Cambridge. We thought this location was ideal given it's close to the 401.”
While the Cambridge Minor Baseball Association will continue its training out of the Cubs Den on Hespeler Road, Horea plans to open up the facility for use by teams from neighbouring cities. Not just reserved for baseball, other sports organizations will also have the opportunity to use the space, he says.
Reaching out to other nearby associations will be part of the next steps after the deal became official on May 16. The idea was discussed as part of a City of Cambridge Committee of Adjustment meeting on April 26 and was finalized less than a month later.
“We have a really respectful, competitive relationship with the other centres,” Horea said.
“We pride ourselves on high respect. We want to include other centres, that's our goal and my goal, as we’re friendly competitors.”
To ensure the facility is used to its full capacity, Horea wants to run clinics for youth when teams are not practicing.
“Selfishly, Kitchener would have been ideal for KMB,” he said.
“But unselfishly we thought Cambridge would be a good fit for other centres to use the facility."
Kitchener Minor Baseball will official take possession of the space at the end of the summer with the hope of being up and running by October 1.
Evon Kitchen and Bath will remain in Preston, moving to a smaller space closer to the back of their Lawrence Street property.
