Palo Alto public gym dream still alive

New facility will help fill a gap in available recreation space for young people in the city, officials say

PALO ALTO >> When an anonymous donor offered Palo Alto up to $35 million to build a public gym in December 2020, city officials touted it as an amazing gift and planners moved quickly to get the new facility designed and built.

But after the anonymous donor — later identified as billionaire and philanthropist John Arrillaga — died in January, the plans were thrown for a loop and the donation was off the table. Now, Palo Alto officials are trying to figure out how to keep the dream of a public gym alive — one that would serve the city's kids, teens and organized sports teams.

“This setback is definitely frustrating,” said councilman Greer Stone. “It was an incredibly generous gift from him and his passing was unfortunate not just for the city and family but for the region. He was such an incredibly generous man to be able to support so many public projects in the region. It's a true loss.”

Arrillaga — who was one of the largest landowners in Silicon Valley and has donated tens of millions to his alma mater Stanford University — died in his home in Portola Valley on January 24 at the age of 84. The real estate heavyweight was known for his history of donating money to public buildings in the Palo Alto area, designing and hiring contractors himself to get the project done.

Despite his passing, Palo Alto officials still want a public gym to fill a gap in recreational opportunities for young people.

While Palo Altan adults have world-class gyms and workout spaces to go to, the city's children often rely on the school district or other after-school programs for dedicated exercise spaces.

Right now, there are two small gyms and a recreational court pa

vilion at Cubberley Community Center, which is owned by the Palo Alto Unified School District. The city leases the spaces and makes them available to community groups, but there are no locker rooms, weight rooms or meeting spaces.

At a city council meeting this month, council members asked the Parks and Recreation Commission to reach out to the public for their thoughts on a new gym and find any willing donors to contribute to the project.

Officials are currently seeking help from residents to figure out where to place the new gym and how to fund it. With $35 million off the table, it will be difficult work for commissioners, according to a council report. But Stone thinks the residents in the city — home to some of the nation's wealthiest families — will step in to make the gym happen.

“We are fortunate to be such an affluent community,” Stone said. “There's a lot of Palo Altans that are very generous so I'm hopeful the Parks and Rec commission will be able to find a new way to fund the future public projects. I think the devil will be in the details.”

A council report says “the demand for gym space is high” and the current gyms available to the city's youth “are almost always reserved in the afternoon and evenings every day of the week.”

In 2017, a Parks Master Plan outlined the importance of dedicated public gym space and noted that planning, designing and constructing a new gym is a major project that residents want.

“As a means of responding to growth and to maintain and expand future programing, at least one multi-purpose gymnasium is recognized as a community need,” said Daren Anderson, the Parks and Recreation staff liaison. “A new gym would create new recreational opportunities, like creating an intramural sports program which provides opportunities for children to learn a new sport, develop social skills, practice teamwork and build friendships.”

Parks and Recreation commissioner Anne Cribbs, who has championed the need for a new gym, said a public gym without Arrillaga's donations could cost anywhere between $5 million and $25 million based on the cost of recently built local area gyms. She said fundraising would include an endowment that would pay for operations going forward.

Cribbs said she and other commissioners have identified the Baylands as a possible location for the gym. The city could take 10.5 acres in the Baylands to construct the new facility, add a new skate park, build new playing fields and partner with the Baylands Gold Course. She said a new gym “is a legacy investment in the health and wellbeing of our community.”

“I believe in Palo Alto, I've been a long-time resident and I believe there are resources in this community to get this gym planned and built,” Cribbs said. “There are incredibly smart, talented and creative folks who love sports and are willing to contribute in many ways. We have great models in the past of Palo Alto doing great things for the community, so we're excited to get going.”

Still, about 83 other capital projects that have been on the back burner for years are currently underway, Anderson said, and focusing on a public gym could affect those other projects' progress. Stone said he doesn't want to see some of those projects get delayed even further for the gym project.

“My concern is that we have such a long and growing list of capital projects that we need to invest in, and some are projects that have been on the list for so many years and are continuing to get pushed back,” Stone said. “Some of them will need to be rearranged again, but some like the Roth Building (history museum), that's a project I really want to make sure continues. It's going to come down to funding at the end of the day.”