City of Columbus moving closer to constructing major new indoor aquatic center

The city of Columbus is moving closer to announcing a major new indoor aquatics center project, likely to be located in the northeast quadrant of the city, but details including a site and potential funding partners are still being worked out behind the scenes.

"We're still just looking at and confirming site locations," Columbus Recreation and Parks Director Bernita Reese said in an interview with The Dispatch Thursday afternoon, noting that no design work is yet underway. "We are trying to seek partners."

What the city envisions constructing "is not just a small facility," Reese said. "We want to bring something that can really bring a regional access for swim meets" and serve the public's general year-round swimming needs.

Such a facility would double the city's portfolio of indoor public pools, adding to the single indoor pool it operates in the Short North, the aging Columbus Aquatics Center, 1160 Hunter Ave. While Reese didn't name with whom the city is looking to partner, a consultant recommended in 2022 that it partner with Columbus City Schools, with its numerous school facilities that could serve as potential sites.

"Is there potential?" Reese said. "We'd be happy for (the school district) to be a partner."

On Thursday, several district officials declined to comment on the possibility of a school being the location for a new indoor swimming, referring questions back to the city.

Reese said the city would likely be the major funding partner, using its capital dollars, which typically come from voter-approved bond issues. The city is looking at underserved corridors, of which the Northeast Side is one, Reese said.

As the city completes the reconstruction of two outdoor pools for summer use, Tuttle Park and Marion Franklin, "we started to look at, too, is it worth looking at an indoor facility," Reese said.

In 2023 alone, 4,600 residents of the Northeast Side attended classes at the indoor Short North facility, Reese said. "You can imagine people traveling from that northeast corridor, coming down to the Short North area, just because they wanted to swim," Reese said, leading the city to conclude that it needs to expand its aquatic portfolio.

The city hopes to have a site selected before the end of the year and anticipates a construction schedule of roughly two years before a facility could open.

"It takes a little bit for projects to really come to completion," Reese said.

While the city currently operates eight seasonal outdoor pools and four "splash parks," The Dispatch reported last year that Ohio's largest city offered much less swimming potential than other major Ohio cities and central Ohio suburbs on a per-capita basis.

Columbus' ratio of one pool for roughly every 100,000 residents has led to overcrowding at the existing pools, a lack of nearby pools for many areas of the city and a lack of swim-class options, competitive events and year-round swim opportunities for residents, according to a draft report by Legat Architects' Columbus office that was commissioned by the city in 2021 at a cost of $494,000.

By some metrics, Columbus could stand to double its number of city pools based on its population, according to Lagat's draft Aquatics Capital Improvement Plan, which is dated fall 2022.

The draft report calls for major investments to start filling in the city's "aquatic deserts," what it labels parts of the nation's 14th largest city lacking any nearby city swimming pools.

Data extrapolated from National Recreation and Park Association publications support adding up to 8 pools to the city to serve the growing population," the 107-page ACIP draft report says. "New pools should be strategically located in areas where aquatics services are not present."

As bad as the summer pool options were found to be for Columbus residents, wintertime pool availability was even worse. The city's lone indoor public pool served a 920,000-plus population, and that cramped facility was constructed in the 1960s.

"The indoor swim center has been determined to be near the end of its usable life," and the city should add a second indoor pool to its inventory, costing between $25 million and $60 million, the report recommended.

Dispatch reporter Cole Behrens contributed to this story.

wbush@gannett.com

@ReporterBush

This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: City of Columbus moving closer to constructing major new indoor aquatic center