The largest tennis facility in Switzerland has to make way for apartments
Happy ending for tennis center – new project for 8 million Swiss francs
The Vitis tennis facility in Schlieren closes in April. You need the space for living space. There is a happy ending after all: The city should soon issue the building permit for a new tennis center project.
Published: 19 minutes ago
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Indoor tennis courts are becoming increasingly rare in Switzerland.
Where else should you play tennis? Juniors and amateur athletes often ask themselves these questions. More and more squares and entire facilities are disappearing. The news at the weekend that the Vitis in Schlieren ZH also had to close its doors caused an uproar. The largest racket sports facility in Switzerland will soon be history. In addition to tennis, you can currently also play badminton and squash there.
130,000 visitors a year hit the balls on 28 courts. Over 500 juniors train at Vitis every week. It’s over in April. The land value for the 13,000 square meters is 50 to 60 million francs – a treasure worth millions. The sports center is scheduled to be demolished in the summer. Construction work on the Lymhof settlement with 350 apartments is scheduled to start in the autumn.
Building permit for new facility by mid-February
No more tennis in Schlieren? Now there is a happy ending. Kurt Locher, who has owned the Vitis Sports Center for 25 years, already has a replacement. Three years ago he was looking for an alternative location, reports the “Tages-Anzeiger” on Tuesday. The new tennis courts are to be built on a land reserve owned by the city of Zurich on the outskirts of Schlieren, around 800 meters east of the current site.
There were no objections to his building project, which Locher submitted in May 2022. The building and planning committee of the city of Schlieren is currently reviewing the submission. The city administration wrote to the “Tages-Anzeiger”: “A building permit can be expected by mid-February.”
Eight million francs for a new sports hall
Nine football pitches are to be built on part of the plot. Locher is allowed to build a new sports center on the western side. The project has it all: The new sports hall will be 165 meters long. A tennis hall with seven tennis courts and a squash hall with six courts are planned. In between, a lounge area with cloakrooms and a cafeteria is to be created.
The total volume of the building will be almost 39,000 cubic meters. And once the new tennis center is up and running, it will be powered by a photovoltaic system on the roofs. Cost point: around eight million Swiss francs. “It corresponds to a need of the population that there is still a racket sports facility in this place,” says Locher in the newspaper. “We want to continue this offer in the future.” (no)