Dozens of members of the gymnastics club, parents and local residents came to the festive meeting. The mood is exhausted. Along the construction site is an inflatable gymnastics mat, where young gymnasts show one somersault after the other. Parents watch proudly and make videos with their phone.
1500 members
Sports alderman Eva De Raadt is happy with the turnout. “This new sports facility has been looking for years. With 1500 members, HLC is the second largest sports club in Haarlem. A bustling club that runs into the boundaries of their accommodation. This will be a central place for the club, but the Mendelcollege can also use it.”
It was precisely that Mendelcollege – the Topsport Talentschool – was one of the Dwarsliggers in the project. The adjacent baseball and softball club Kinheim did not like the plans either. Furthermore, local residents had objections to the plan to build a large gymnastics hall on Pim Mulierlaan in Haarlem-Noord. But there were more problems in the long run -up to the start of construction.
“The way to this moment was long and not always easy,” says the alderman. “The rising construction costs and the higher interest rate caused bumps. That is why the municipality has taken over the project.”
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