Naperville hires construction firm for activity center
Naperville Park District commissioners on Thursday night hired a construction manager for the district's next major project, approving a guaranteed maximum cost of $20.9 million for construction of an indoor activity center.
Wight Construction Inc. will build the activity center at Quincy Avenue and Fort Hill Drive by the end of 2016 for $1.29 million out of the maximum construction cost approved Thursday.
Executive Director Ray McGury said it is important to have the construction management firm on board as the park district continues working with Williams Architects to finalize designs by the end of the year.
Preliminary designs presented Thursday call for a two-story building with a fitness center, basketball and volleyball courts, a walking track, a cafe, a child-care center and indoor playground, multipurpose rooms including space available for people with special needs, a gymnastics room, dance studios and offices for the park district programming staff.
“Looking back at the top responses over our last three community surveys, this building and the spaces in it hit all the major spaces identified in those surveys except for a swimming pool,” said Brad Wilson, director of recreation.
The building of approximately 80,000 square feet will have an address on Fort Hill Drive and will be situated toward the north end of a five-acre site the park district bought for $2 million, bringing the project's total cost to roughly $23 million.
A parking lot with 320 spaces will be south of the activity center leading to the building's main entrance.
Proposed for the first floor are three courts for basketball, volleyball and badminton, a cafe, the child care area and indoor playground for children up to age 8, locker rooms, the free-weights section of the fitness center and a gymnastics room.
“Gymnastics has grown by more than 1,000 participants since 2011,” Wilson said.
Commissioner Mike Reilly asked whether the space could be repurposed if gymnastics participation dips in the future, and Wilson said it could. Many of the activity center's spaces are designed to be flexible with curtains or movable walls to divide or open them into smaller or larger areas, he said.
Second-floor preliminary designs call for the cardio equipment area of the fitness center, wood-floor studios for dance or group exercise classes, storage areas and a 12-foot-wide track split into two lanes — one for walkers and another for joggers. About nine laps around the track will equal one mile.
Glass windows into each of the activity center's spaces will allow easy observation for visitors in the interior hallway and help staff members monitor what's going on.
“When people walk in, it builds excitement as far as the types of activities that are taking place,” Wilson said.
McGury said preliminary activity center designs will be posted to the park district's website this morning for residents to view.