Project features senior center, 2,500 seat amphitheater

After 18 years of planning, feasibility studies and meetings, the Southlake Community Recreation Center has broken ground.

About 200 people attended the ground breaking ceremony, at Bicentennial Park, which included breakfast, a presentation, tours and lunch on Sept. 27.

"The ground breaking was a milestone event of the city," Community Services Director Chris Tribble said in an email to Community Impact Newspaper. "The Southlake City Council has been working on the project since 2010 in response to the wishes of citizens for a multipurpose community recreation center in Southlake."

Tribble himself joined the project in 2005. When he started, the facility was listed as a future project as part of the city's master plan, but no funds were earmarked at the time for it.

"The contractor is currently in the process of obtaining all of the required permits for construction and will be underway soon," Tribble said. "We anticipate a grand opening in November or December 2015."

The Southlake CRC is located at 315 North Shady Oaks Drive in the southwest corner of Bicentennial Park.

Including an amphitheater

The first phase of construction will include a new senior center and events hall, as well as an outdoor amphitheater.

According to Tribble, the outdoor amphitheater will be able to seat up to 2,500 people, but it was not always included in the plan for the facility.

"This whole project started out as a large campus with a performing arts center and a larger library," Tribble said. "But that was something the city could not facilitate with [the availability of] other larger performing arts centers in the area."

"In 2010 the city did a feasibility study; at that time then, there was discussion about not only a recreation center and a senior center, but an outdoor amphitheater as well," Tribble said. "It just evolved as time went on."

Looking forward

The first phase of construction, which is being completed by Adolfson & Peterson Construction, includes a community events hall, senior center, multipurpose rooms, a lounge, kitchen, lobby and amphitheater for a total of 20,500 square feet.

The first phase is expected to be completed in August 2015.

In August council members looked at an updated plan for the center that included a plan for additional park-style restrooms with outdoor accessibility as well as indoor accessibility.

The council approved the additional restrooms which tacked on $400,000 to the budget. Construction on Phase 1, before the restrooms, totaled $13.5 million of the $14.8 million Phase 1 budget, which still keeps the project within budget.

According to the recreation center website, the city has been saving for the project since 2009, so Phase 1 will be paid for in cash.

Before the second phase can begin, voters must approve Phase 2 funding during the May 2015 election. Should it be approved, the second phase is planned to begin in September 2016; completion is pegged for January 2018.

A basic design for the second phase has already been completed by Barker, Rinker, Seacat Architecture, of Denver, Colorado. The cost to complete Phase II of the design is estimated to be $1.78 million.

The second phase of the project includes spaces for fitness and training, a gymnasium, indoor track, indoor aquatics center, indoor playground, early learning classrooms, daycare and additional multipurpose rooms. Phase 2 is 84,700 square feet.

According to Communications and Websites Manager Pilar Schank, the city a owns and maintains 6 miles of park trails, 10 aerated ponds, 40 pavilions, 21 lighted tennis courts, 62 practice and game fields, and 12 concession/restroom facilities, in addition to the new recreation center on a total of 1,200 acres of land.

In total, the finished recreation center will be 105,200 square feet.