Steinbach is getting a new sport centre. The only question is, what will this new facility look like.

That is the word from Les Spence, owner of Fitness Zone. Spence owns 2.7 acres of land to the west of Birch Auto Farm Supply. He says at the very least, he is building a new gym there that will be six times the size of the space he currently leases along 1st Street. He notes their current gym is bursting at the seams.

But Spence wants to know what the public would like to see included in this space. According to the business owner, there is room there to construct a building that is 160 feet by 300 feet and include 250 parking spots.

He feels there is an appetite in the southeast for a sport centre that could include such things as a field house, equipment for seniors and a walking track. And, now Spence is giving residents of the southeast the opportunity to share their opinions.

A flier will hit 18,000 mailboxes next week, alerting residents to a survey that can be filled out through Steinbachonline.com. Through this survey, Spence should know what it is that residents want and how often they might use a facility such as this. He says after the survey blitz, they will target schools and sports teams, noting this whole process will probably take about three months. In a perfect world, Spence would love to put shovel in the ground in mid-July of 2018 and have the facility built in six to eight months.

The facility will be privately funded and according to Spence, it won't be built by tax dollars. He says Steinbach Mayor Chris Goertzen has been encouraging and there has been overwhelming support from those aware of the plans. Depending on what goes into the building, Spence says it will probably cost no less than $5 million to build.

"It depends on how fancy you want to get," he says. "We definitely want to bring lots of light in there, we want to make it happy, we want to make it a place where people truly want to go and feel good."

Spence says this facility is what Steinbach needs. Several years ago there was discussion about building a field house for soccer in Steinbach. He notes hundreds of people expressed interest then and expects that number is only growing. Spence says a large percentage of his clientele is heading to Winnipeg these days to use sports facilities that Steinbach does not have.

"It would just be awesome if we can bring it here and take athletes to a whole new level," he says.

To fill out the survey, click.