Indoor baseball facility planned for Lake Barrington

Young baseball players wanting to practice their pitching, hitting and fielding will soon have a new, state-of-the-art facility to sharpen their skills.

Professional Baseball Instruction of Illinois officially announced this week it will move into a new home in the Northpointe Development in Lake Barrington.

Now in a smaller facility in town, Professional Baseball Instruction of Illinois is managed by Dave Trautwein, a Barrington High grad and former player in the New York Mets organization.

"It is neat to be able to do this in a town I love," he said. "We have been trying to get this done for the past three years."

The new, 22,157-square-foot training facility will feature a fully turfed field, a major league infield and a 30-foot-tall ceiling with no columns.

"There is nothing like it in this part of state," Trautwein said.

The facility will offer camps, clinics and private coaching lessons for boys and girls ages 5 and up.

Trautwein said operators hope to break ground in March and be open for business by the end of the year.

The facility will be part of the Northpointe Development, which will also house the new Lake Barrington Field House, a 175,000-square-foot indoor sports complex on the east side of Pepper Road in the Lake Barrington Business Park.

The field house will feature a single, 95,000-square-foot, artificial-turf playing surface that will accommodate a full-size soccer field, two baseball-softball diamonds and a full-size field for football and lacrosse.

There also will be 40,000 square feet of hardwood court surface with room for four basketball courts or eight volleyball courts.

Work on the field house began in November.

Tom Laue, president of Field House Development, the company behind the project, said it's on target to open in September and October.

As the opening gets closer, he said more and more area residents have inquired about using the facility and working there, too.

"The community seems to be really getting behind this," he said.

For more information on the Professional Baseball Instruction of Illinois, visit baseballclinics.com/illinois.

For details on the entire Northpointe Development, visit barringtonfieldhouse.com.