$20M AQUATIC CENTER BID
$20 million proposal: Olympic-size pool, amenities touted as sports tourism boost
A “design-build” team including firms from Newport News and Williamsburg wants to build the facility with an Olympic-size pool in Hampton.
HAMPTON — Hampton is diving into the deep end with efforts to build its multimillion-dollar aquatics center with end goals to boost sports t o u r i s m, increase city revenue and i mprove quality of life for its residents.
The city this week announced the principals from a “design-build” team, which submitted a near $20 million unsolicited bid on the project. They include Newport News-based Clancy & Theys Construction Company and Williamsburgbased GuernseyTingle.
The team — along with several marquee players around Hampton Roads in engineering and design — plan a competitive facility with at least one Olympic-size pool, plus other amenities on a city-owned 5-acre vacant parcel at the Pine Chapel Road and Coliseum Drive intersection.
The developers submitted their proposal in July under the guidelines of the Public-Private Education and Infrastructure Act, known in short as PPEA.
The special public-private partnership law, enacted in 2002, allows developers to submit unsolicited proposals on important public projects, allowing for early feedback before making them competitive.
The city posted the project Thursday to seek other competitive bids. This is required by law because the project would be publicly financed via Hampton’s long-term capital improvement plan.
Highlights from the Clancy & Theys design calls for a 50,000square-foot facility with a lobby, locker and changing rooms, plus offices and a “wet” classroom surrounding the 50-meter pool’s deck. The proposed pool spaces include a 12,600-square-foot competition pool, a 3,100-square-foot program pool and a 110-squarefoot whirlpool.
The facility would also have mezzanine seating above the pool deck for about 805 spectators, including nine wheelchair and nine companion seats. On the pool deck, there would be additional capacity for 648 more seats. The smaller pools would be used for lap swimming and for the community — from swim lessons to aerobics and yoga.
“Our proposal is just under $20 million,” says William Goggins, the CEO at Clancy & Theys. He added the company had been following the news reports of the city’s need for an aquatic center, and it took the team six months to prepare the proposal.
The company has done similar projects, including the Triangle Aquatics Center, which opened in 2007 in Cary, N.C.
City Manager Mary Bunting said previously the impact for sport tourism is as important as improving the quality of life for residents. When the city shuttered the former Olde Hampton Neighborhood Center, it had to take one of its city pools out of service.
“We want to replace that pool ... and offer the opportunity to improve our sports tourism at the same time,” she said.
The aquatics center is listed as a $22 million project in the city’s current capital improvement plan. Funding is scheduled to begin in 2020, but would be parsed out in smaller bits — $9.15 million for 2020 and the remaining $12.8 million to be funded in fiscal year 2023.
It’s a concept that has long been on Hampton’s radar, but as recently as 2017, a divided City Council voted 4-3 to move forward with the aquatics project.
Since then, a scaled down version from its original $31.5 million plan has been agreed upon, but cost, time and size were still factors for some council members.
“The city wanted to be the sport tourism mecca in the area,” said Councilwoman Chris Snead, among the four who supported the project when the council voted last December.
“In order to do that, we have to have more than basketball,” Snead said, referring to the Boo Williams Sportplex that attracts many headlined tournaments. “It’s great, but we have to have more than one type of sports.”
Snead, the city’s former budget director, said the debt service would be paid through the hotel fees earned from booked competitions.
“It’s diversity of our sport tourism,” Snead said. “Why not do them both and why not do it, if we can gain some revenue?”
Mayor Donnie Tuck, among those who did not vote in favor, said let the people decide during the upcoming public meeting, taking place on Oct. 30, at the Hampton Roads Convention Center.
The public forum is to gather resident input and their vision for the city’s future community plan and design for 2040.
“I think we have a number of other identified needs,” Tuck said. He added, the public forum will be “an opportune time to let the public weigh in as to how we do the planning for the next 10 or 20 years.” Vernon Sparks can be reached by phone at 757-247-4832.