New $5 Million Aquatic Facility Going Up in SE Boise
Boise metro has a few public, municipal and membership only pools to help swimmers, adults and families beat the heat with some fun indoor and outdoor splash time. Although after just 13 days into use, The City of Boise just made some major changes and guidelines to use of their pools, read more about that here. There are also a ton of great splash pads for the little ones, check out some of those here. The Treasure Valley, specifically Southeast Boise is adding a major aquatic facility thanks to the Greater Boise Auditorium District and Idaho Competitive Aquatics.
According to Margaret Carmel with BoiseDev, the new center will be funded from hotel taxes from Boise. The Greater Boise Auditorium District, or GBAD helps facilitate how and where the hotel tax money is used. They focus on using the 5% hotel tax to develop “spaces for community engagement". The GBAD has been around since the late 1950s and includes most of Boise, all of Garden City, and parts of Eagle, Meridian, and Ada County. They are responsible for a few great projects around town including the Boise Centre originally built in 1990 and the expansion and later added sky bridge in 2016.
Last fall The GBAD received a proposal and plan for the aquatic center from Idaho Competitive Aquatics. It peaked the interest of GBAD and after a few more steps including having a Conventions, Sports & Leisure International, a consulting firm look over all of the plans in detail the plan's final voting just got a thumbs up.
This $5 million project is planned to have a 50-meter pool, a 25-meter warm-up pool, and bleachers for spectators. Everything will be indoors so it can have full use year-round. Project creators are hopeful it will open by next spring at 3575 S. Findley Avenue.