RED HOOK — A 6,500-square-foot indoor training center for baseball and softball is slated to open in Red Hook this fall, the owner said Wednesday.
Brooklyn Sluggers will take over the building at 76 Verona St. between Van Brunt and Richards streets. Permits were filed Sept. 1 to convert the space into an exercise and practice area, according to the Department of Buildings.
"I'm trying to bring baseball back into the community," said owner John Torres, who hopes to open the center next month.
The indoor sports and fitness facility will feature synthetic turf, batting cages, token machines as well as personal training and exercise classes. While the center will focus on teens and younger children, there are also plans to add classes, such as bootcamps and Zumba for adults.
Torres, who has played baseball for years and once coached at Xaverian High School in Bay Ridge, previously worked as a trainer at a similar indoor facility at Third Avenue and 27th Street in Sunset Park, where he ran baseball and softball clinics for kids.
That sports center closed in January 2015 after more than a decade in the neighborhood, he said.
With Brooklyn Sluggers, Torres hopes to fill the gap left by the Sunset Park facility and provide a year-round space for young athletes to practice and grow. He also hopes to bring in soccer classes for younger children.
"Red Hook and Park Slope are now developing a lot of baseball leagues. I look forward to getting those teams started indoors," he said.
Though Red Hook is home to multiple outdoor baseball and softball fields, most will remain closed over the next several years to remediate significant lead contamination in the soil.
"It was a little sad to hear," Torres said of the shuttered parks. "Those were going to be our summer camp fields."
