There is a new home for recreation in the township.
A 35,000 square-foot building that once housed the Perkiomen Academy at 2373 Hoffmansville Road, is now the new home to New Hanover’s recreation programs.
In addition to the building, which has a 36-foot-by-77-foot gymnasium, the site also sits on 12 acres, said recreation director Connie Garner.
The township purchased the building and acreage in June for $412,500. It had been on the market for about two years.
There was initially some discussion about using the building as a new township building and converting the current township building on Route 663 into a police station, said Kurt Zebrowski, one of New Hanover’s representatives to the Pottstown Metropolitan Area Regional Planning Committee.
However, the township supervisors instead decided to use the site as a recreation center for the township, Garner said.
‘It’s a really big building,’ Garner said, noting that one of the primary uses envisioned is to rent out portions of it for parties and events, and perhaps even some classroom space to area non-profits and recreation-oriented organizations, like one of the current tenants – Kinder-Music.
‘The township is looking to break even on the cost so this is not a burden on the taxpayers,’ Garner explained.
Garner said she would also like to get equipment and programming there that will help to make the center welcoming to the township’s seniors.
‘We are also looking into building some soccer, softball and baseball fields on the property,’ she said.
She said currently many of the township-owned fields are maintained, and occupied as a result, by the various sports clubs around town ‘and we want to try to have a place that someone can just call up and use a field for a day.’
Concept designs for those fields are currently being drawn up and will include plans for a larger parking lot at the site, said Garner.
