Schlegel family paying $2.3M to rename park

RBJ Schlegel Park opens in spring 2019, mayor hails ‘historic investment’

KITCHENER — In the biggest sponsorship deal in the city’s history, the Schlegel family has paid $2.3 million to have the new South Kitchener District Park renamed after the family firm.

Mayor Berry Vrbanovic announced the sponsorship in his “State of the City” speech Tuesday afternoon at Catalyst137, a former warehouse on Glasgow Street that has been converted into a tech hardware accelerator.

Hailing the Schlegel family as “city builders,” Vrbanovic praised their “historic investment in building a stronger, healthier, more connected city.”

The 17-hectare (42-acre) park at the southwest corner of Huron Road and Fischer-Hallman Road will be known as RBJ Schlegel Park when it opens in spring 2019.

The first phase of the park will include a splash pad and sports fields, while later phases will add trails and sports courts and eventually a pool and arenas.

Sponsoring the park made sense on several fronts, said James Schlegel, CEO of RBJ Schlegel, a Kitchener company involved in urban development, long-term care and agribusiness.

“We believe very strongly as a family in creating vibrant and healthy and active, age-friendly communities,” he said.

The family has a strong connection to the area, as Schlegel and his brothers’ maternal grandparents farmed there, and the firm is developing a 175-acre subdivi-

sion across the road from the park, he said. “We thought it made sense to invest in the community amenities that many of those folks we’re selling homes to will benefit from,” he said.

“From the city’s perspective this is a huge sponsorship investment,” said Jeremy Dueck, a city staff member involved in developing sponsorships.

Previous sponsorships have included a $40,000, five-year deal to name the Playball Academy ball fields; a $45,000, threeyear deal to name the Tepperman’s lounge at Sportsworld arena, and $500,000 to name the Activa Sportsplex, he said.

The $2.3 million will be paid out over 10 years and gives the park the name RBJ Schlegel Park for 40 years.

It also gives the Schlegel family the right to name three fields in the park for 10 years.

Council will decide exactly how the money will be used, Dueck said, but the city’s sponsorship rules generally require the bulk of the money to be spent on improving the city facility being sponsored.

Kitchener council approved a new sponsorship policy in 2016 that gave city staff the green light to pursue opportunities to sell naming rights to ball diamonds, city parks, community centres and festivals.