Hitters Baseball Academy plans to move its operations from Racine to a 43-acre site in Franklin, where it plans to build an $8 million baseball complex.
The property, currently vacant, is located on the north side of County Line Road, west of South 27th Street, but not along 27th Street.
The complex would include a 75,000-square-foot building with office space, weight lifting facilities, batting cages, pitching mounds and two indoor baseball infields. The complex would also include four, outdoor full-size artificial turf baseball fields.
The facility will be used for baseball camps, leagues, tournaments, individual practices and for instructional sessions, said Rob Brockel, director of marketing for Hitters Baseball Academy.
Hitters currently operates out of a 20,000-square-foot facility that it leases at 4726 Six Mile Road, Racine. It also runs some leagues at a field in Sturtevant.
Hitters needs more space to accommodate all of the baseball players that want to use its facilities, especially during the baseball off-season, Brockel said.
“We’ve had to turn away so many kids because we’re not big enough here,” he said. “During the winter, fall and spring we’re just getting slammed.”
In Franklin, “we will take (the existing operation) and multiply it by 10,” Brockel said.
Hitters also hopes to host national baseball tournaments with the outdoor fields at the proposed Franklin facility, which would attract dozens of teams and would provide business for area hotels and restaurants, he said.
The development still needs approval from Franklin city officials. Hitters hopes to have the project completed by the end of summer 2011, Brockel said.
