SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (KELO) — Commissioners got a new look at the proposed indoor recreation center at Frank Olson Park.
During a city informational meeting on Tuesday night, the council received an update regarding the indoor recreation center at Frank Olson Park.
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This comes from a $68 million bond the city council previously approved that will upgrade Frank Olson and Kuehn Parks and the westside recreation center. $18 million will be used to construct an outdoor pool at Kuehn Park, $47 million to construct an indoor recreation and aquatics facility at Frank Olson Park, and $3 million to complete Day 2 improvements at Westside Rec Center.
The council is set to host another informational meeting on July 22, 2025, once the schematic designs cross 85% before approving the resolution design on August 5, 2025.
The project is expected to be bid for construction in January of 2027 and for construction to take place between spring 2027 and spring 2029 before opening in summer of 2029.
Below is a visualization of what the facility would look like.
The two-story, 75,000-square-foot building will feature two pools, an athletics area, an indoor play area as well as a health and wellness area.
Don Kearney, Director of the Sioux Falls Parks and Recreation Department, said this report was more or less a check in as the 55% schematic design mark.
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“Once the rec center’s constructed, we do have plans to finish off and build out the balance of that park and renovate the spaces, for example, where the old pool was and those kinds of things,” Kearney said.
Kearney says the project includes a 15,000-square-foot athletics space which can be used for a variety of sports such as pickleball, volleyball, and basketball, as well as an indoor track . The center will also contain two pools, a six lane lap pool and a heated activity pool.
The building will also contain exercise areas, indoor play areas, and multi-purpose rooms.
“Certainly fitness is an important component because it’s the number one request for the second time in five years when we’ve polled our community,” Kearney said. “That’s what people say they want us to invest in, that’s their priority and it’s the number one priority again from the community’s perspective and so in order for us to be able to address that need, really feel like there needs to be some level of a component in this facility to be able to accommodate that.”
City Councilor Curt Soehl said the fitness aspect of the rec center is something that could present an issue regarding the bond ordinance.
“The bond ordinance that we approved for this specifically excluded, intentionally excluded fitness. I don’t know if everybody understands that that was an intentional by the council to exclude fitness for this facility,” Soehl said. “So if fitness is included, you’re in violation of what we’ve already passed in the bond. So I want you to get together with your teams in legal to follow what we’ve already passed in the bond.”
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Tom Poulos, CEO of Williams Architects, said they have designed the facility to be fully within the city’s budget.
“That’s why we’ve reduced the square footage of the overall building to align ourselves with the budget. So we understand the budget is mission critical here, there is no extra capacity for moving the budget and we’re on target right now,” Poulos said.
