Nearly a year ago, Tim Leiweke said the team was looking for a new, state-of-the-art practice home for the Raptors.

The plan was to help attract potential free agents and to keep current players happy by having the best facilities possible.

On Wednesday, the Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment president/CEO said an announcement pertaining to the facility should be coming by May.

“We’re making progress with the practice facility, it’s something that we’ve been working on at the same pace and in the same conversations with (the BMO Field) renovation,” Leiweke told the Sun over the phone from New York City, where he is attending the NBA’s board of governors’ meeting.

“The city has been fantastic. We’re pretty much close to an agreement in principle. Part of what I promised (general manager Masai Ujiri) was the ability to announce it in the next couple of weeks. We want to have it done in time for the 2016 all-star game.”

Leiweke eased fears that the facility could be put in the middle of nowhere, as other NBA teams have done.

“We want it to be close to downtown, because that’s where most of the players live. It will be good for everybody. When we announce it, everybody will be very happy,” he said.

The team’s current practice court and weight room is on the third floor of the Air Canada Centre and will stay there for next season and likely half of the following one.

The goal is to have the new one completed “no later than late 2015” and MLSE will be working with Drake, its global ambassador, on putting a nightclub in the arena (as is the case in Miami), likely in the space currently occupied by the practice court.

ryan.wolstat@sunmedia.ca