Bentonville Community Recreation Center Construction Continues

STAFF PHOTO SAMANTHA BAKER • @NWASAMANTHA David Wright, director of parks and recreation, talks Wednesday about the layout of the Bentonville Community Recreation Center at 1101 S.W. Citizens Circle. The 82,000 square-foot facility is to open in the first half of 2015.
STAFF PHOTO SAMANTHA BAKER • @NWASAMANTHA David Wright, director of parks and recreation, talks Wednesday about the layout of the Bentonville Community Recreation Center at 1101 S.W. Citizens Circle. The 82,000 square-foot facility is to open in the first half of 2015.

BENTONVILLE -- The city's Community Recreation Center is becoming more visible as steel beams are being erected.

The center is in the city's southwest corner, south of the intersection of Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard and Southwest I Street.

At A Glance (w/logo)

Community Center

The infrastructure, the circular drive and street lights at the Bentonville Community Recreation Center were completed about two years ago. The groundbreaking for the building was Nov. 12,. It will be south of the intersection of Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard and Southwest I Street. The site is 35 acres. Nine will be used for the building, leaving 24 acres for a community park.

The building cost $16.1 million. The Walton Family Foundation donated $2 million. Bentonville School District, Walmart Foundation, Community Care Foundation and Advertising and Promotion Commission gave $1 million each.

Source: Staff Report

Crossland Construction started to install the steel beams March 31, said Pat Carroll, Crossland project manager.

The gymnasium frame of the south end of the building is the focal point now. Workers will move north from there.

A topping-out ceremony that signifies the last beam to be put in place should be in about two months, Carroll said.

The 82,000-square-foot building will be split level. The entrance will be on the top floor. Upon entrance, two lounges sit beyond the lobby, one for the general public and a small one for senior citizens.

A glass fireplace will be viewed from both sides. The finishes and colors will make it feel like people are "walking into someone's home," Carroll said.

Since the project's inception, leaders wanted to make sure the building wouldn't have an industrial feel, said David Wright, Parks and Recreation director.

"We wanted it to (feel like) an extension of the living room," he said.

To the right of the lobby is a corridor that leads to a large community room that can be separated into smaller rooms.

The rooms will be equipped for multi-purpose use. The smaller ones could be used for private parties or business meetings, and the large room could be used for a family reunion, birthday party, wedding reception or concert, Wright said.

There's a catering kitchen at end of the hallway, building plans show.

Left of the front lobby will be administrative offices and a walking track that circles the gym below. The track will be 1/16th of a mile, Wright said.

The gym will have one full basketball court running north to south and a couple half courts running east to west, Carroll said. The gym also will be used to play volleyball.

Adjacent to the gym are locker rooms. A family cabana area will sit between the men's and women's sides.

The masonry walls for the showers and locker rooms should start going up within the next couple of weeks, Carroll said.

The locker rooms lead into the leisure pool area to the west.

"The leisure pool is what it says it is," Wright said. "It's a playground in water."

It will have a zero-depth entry and gradually slope to its deepest point of 21/2 feet. There will be two water slides, an "adventure river" with currents, basketball hoops and three lanes for the learn-to-swim program, according to building drawings.

One slide will take riders outside the building for a couple of loops and bring them back in. The other slide will all be inside, Carroll said.

The leisure pool is more conducive with teaching children to swim because of its shallow depths, Wright said.

"The water is not as intimidating," he said.

A competitive pool will be to the west of the leisure pool. It will have eight, 25-yard long lanes and range in depth from 4 to 16 feet.

The ground is being prepared for concrete in the aquatic areas. Steel beams will be erected over that section once that work is finished, Carroll said.

To the north of the locker rooms will be an area for treadmills, stationary bikes and other equipment. A weight area will be to its east. An aerobics and dance room will be to its north.

Outside, a fenced-in outdoor area will be landscaped. It will slope into a retention pond, creating a natural amphitheater area, Wright said.

Eventually, there will be a mile trail around the perimeter, a pavilion, basketball courts and multipurpose fields, Wright said.

Scott Eccleston, Parks and Recreation Advisory Board chairman, visited the site about two weeks ago. "We've seen the drawings so many times, to be on site and visualize where all the pieces were going was really exciting," he said.

As a whole, esidents see the square as the city's core. More feel like services are being offered to everyone in Bentonville with the center being built in the southwest corner of the city, Eccleston said.

Lyndsey Naekel, lives on Southwest Banbury Drive, just three streets away from the construction site. She's excited about the facility and its proximity to her home.

"It's great. It's close," she said.

Her three boys, ages 5, 7 and 9, love to swim and be active. They frequent their neighborhood pool during summer, and look forward to being able to swim year round with the center's indoor pools, Naekel said.

Cristy Clement lives on Southwest Hollowbrook Street. Her initial reaction to the project was that it would be a great addition and help increase property value, she said.

Her concern about traffic has grown as construction has taken place. Clement said she's worried about people using the neighborhood to cut through from Southwest Regional Airport Boulevard to the center. There's also concern that her street could be used as overflow parking, she said.

"It's just really starting to sink in now that we're seeing the building go up," she said.

Clement said she plans to use the facility, especially the pool, once it's open. "Having it that close is going to be nice," she said.

Tara Kneeshaw, Clement's neighbor across the street, said she and her family had mixed feelings about the project when it was introduced, but they have become excited the more they've learned about it. "We think it will bring a lot of value to our property."

The family chose their home in part because of the quiet pasture that used to be where the recreational center is being built, she said. Her concerns were related to traffic and noise, but felt better about it after speaking with city planners.

"We're just going to see how it goes," Kneeshaw said. "We're either going to really love it, or we're not going to like it with all the traffic. The traffic is the main thing that we're concerned about."

Expected completion for the building is the first half of 2015, Wright said. Construction should come to an end around April or May. It will take another month for the staff to get the building ready for business. It's "way too early" to set an opening date, he said

NW News on 04/12/2014

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