Southlake Purchases Texas School of Baseball

Mayor Rick Stacy signed a contract on behalf of the City Council on Tuesday that completes the city's purchase of Texas School of Baseball, a private athletic complex located in the southeast corner of the city.

The Southlake Parks Development Corporation paid $2.2 million for the 16-acre facility, which includes four baseball fields (three lighted, one unlighted) and a 20,000-square-foot metal building used for indoor classes and training. Plans are for the city to convert the facility into a girls softball complex. The existing baseball fields will be made into four lighted softball fields, and a concessions and restroom building will be constructed.

Texas School of Baseball, 2100 Crooked Lane, was started by David and Beverly Thorne in the fall of 1994 and has operated since then as a private baseball complex. The city had been in negotiations to purchase the facility for more than two months.

City officials decided to convert the facility into a girls softball complex because that is one of the greatest needs identified in the recent revision of the Parks and Open Space Master Plan. Southlake currently has three competition softball fields and seven competition baseball fields at Bicentennial Park, with additional practice baseball fields under construction at Bob Jones Park. The Parks Board had studied several options for building a softball complex before learning of the opportunity to purchase Texas School of Baseball.

During the fall, the outfield areas at Texas School of Baseball will be used for evening practices by the Southlake Carroll Lacrosse Association, which had expressed a need for lighted practice areas. In addition, the existing metal building will continue to be used by the Top Flight Gymnastics Training Center, which has a five-year lease for use of the building. The city assumed that lease as part of the purchase.

City officials said engineering and design work related to the renovation will begin in October, with construction expected to start before the end of the year. The work could be completed as early as the start of the Spring 2002 season of the Southlake Girls Softball Association.