How Wellington is growing: Village approves $27.9 million aquatic center for Village Park

WELLINGTON — The village has approved plans for a new $27.9 million aquatics center that will open next year in Village Park and feature an Olympic-sized pool, a recreational pool and a NinjaCross obstacle course, the first in Palm Beach County.

The center will replace the 40-year-old pool on Wellington's municipal complex, which the village will demolish once the new site is open.

Council member Michael Drahos, who grew up swimming in the village pool, said the $27.9 million project was an investment for Wellington's future.

“This is money exceptionally well spent,” said Drahos, who is leaving office this month because of term limits. “We are creating memories for countless generations to come."

Mayor Anne Gerwig said she would have preferred building a new complex at the site of the present pool. She said the new center would be expensive to build and maintain and that Wellington had to find a way to make revenue from it.

"I do see the benefit of expanding it," said Gerwig, who also is leaving office this month. "I just want to make sure we can afford to do this."

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The Village Council unanimously voted on March 12 to enter an agreement with Wharton-Smith Inc., a Sanford-based pool builder, to limit the spending for the new aquatics center at $27.9 million. Council members also approved to purchase the NinjaCross system, a retractable obstacle course, for $935,000.

Last year, council members voted to relocate the aquatics center to an expanded footprint in Village Park from the Wellington municipal complex on Forest Hill Boulevard.

"The current pool has many limitations at the current location that we have now," Jennifer Metz, the volunteer coordinator for the Wellington Wahoos swim team, told council members on March 12. "I encourage you all to build a new pool with the future in mind, with better facilities, better timing equipment, more lanes and more space for the athletes in the community."

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Council member Michael Napoleone said the aquatic center's new location in Village Park will allow for more synergy between the fields in the park and the new pools.

"They'll have a lot more interaction and use of the pool on Village Park, which is where the pool belongs," said Napoleone, who this month will replace Gerwig as mayor.

What will the new aquatics center feature?

Sam Elsheikh, a principal for the Orlando design firm OLC Architects, said the new aquatics center will be organized around a central pool house with a slanted roof and two pools on its sides. One 64-meter Olympic-sized pool will include diving boards and a movable bulkhead, and another pool will be used for children's open play and feature a Ninjacross system.

Elsheikh said the Ninjacross system include two interchangeable obstacle courses that can be used by children as young as 7 and can be quickly adapted from low to high difficulty levels.

"The play structure system can be modified over time, so it's not a stagnant one," Elsheikh said. " Every time you go, it may be a different course."

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The Olympic-sized pool will be 64 meters in length and be used for competitive, lap and synchronized swimming; water polo; and diving. It will have the capacity for 536 people and for 10 50-meter lap lanes and 10 25-meter lap lanes.

There also will be a 8,000-square-foot recreation pool with a splash area. It will be used for open play, swim lessons and water aerobics. It will have the capacity for 285 people and will feature a zero-depth entry and a Ninjacross competitive structure.

A pool house will be home to check-in stations, a concession stand, locker and changing rooms and offices for lifeguards and swimming coaches. The complex will have 270 parking spaces, with 50 additional grass spaces for overflow parking.

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Gerwig said the new complex will come at a big price to residents and the village needed to monetize its use such as by charging visitors a higher fee than residents.

"I want to make sure the residents get a value out of this because it is expensive and a lot of it's coming out of their taxes." Gerwig said. "Let's not make it an albatross around our neck that we can't afford to operate."

Drahos said the expanded facilities at Village Park will allow Wellington children to practice and compete in all swim sports, including diving.

He told the Wharton-Smith representatives they had improved the design from their first renderings by adding a roof to the pool house that had the appearance of wood, but that he wanted them to go further with the colors and landscaping of the complex.

"I wanted it to look a little bit less industrial, less municipal, a little bit more Wellington." Drahos said.

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Council membered debated whether the new aquatics center should feature the signature water slides children have come to love at the village's pool. As of now, it will not. Gerwig said the slides offered an entertainment for children of all ages that was safe for adults.

Other council members touted the benefits of the Ninjacross system. Tanya Siskind noted that it could be easily changed and even be used by high schoolers.

"I just see it being very versatile," Siskind said. "You can change it so it doesn't get boring."

Napoleone said the Ninjacross system was unique to Wellington and that it was more valuable than water slides.

"We were talking about being best in class and first to market," Napoleone said. "No one else is going to have this, and if you want to go to slides, there's places nearby you can go to on a waterslide."

Valentina Palm covers Royal Palm Beach, Wellington, Greenacres, Palm Springs and other western communities in Palm Beach County for The Palm Beach Post. Email her at vpalm@pbpost.com and follow her on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter, at @ValenPalmB. Support local journalism: Subscribe today.

This article originally appeared on Palm Beach Post: Wellington to build $27.9 million aquatic center at Village Park