Pool study recommends new aquatic centre on UNB endowment lands

A study looking at the best place for a new aquatic facility in Fredericton recommends building on a new site, on the west side of the Abony Family Tennis Centre, near the Vanier Highway.

The $100,000 feasibility study was commissioned by Regional Service Commission 11 and funded by several municipalities and the provincial government.

It weighed two options for a new pool building new or adding to the Grant Harvey Centre.

"The brand new location would have more opportunity to expand it in the future, more opportunity for more parking," said Chris Ramsey, president of the Fredericton Regional Aquatic Centre Inc.

"But at the same time, you have to run a new road to it, you're further away from municipal services when you build it. And if you attach it to Grant Harvey, it's kind of squeezed in a smaller area that limits perhaps how you can expand it to the future, But it's attached to Grant Harvey and you share services. You share the big entranceway to Grant Harvey, things like that."

The study identifies a gymnasium as a possible future expansion.

"What we looked at was, what's the optimal configuration of features," said Don Fitzgerald, executive director of Regional Service Commission 11.

It's recommendedthree pools, one with 10 25-metre lanes, a recreational pool, and a smaller therapy pool in a new, independent centre on the University of New Brunswick endowment lands.

The cost of adding onto the Grant Harvey Centre is about $38.5 million, and the cost of building new is about $42 million. Fitzgerald said both those estimates are on the high end.

The aquatics community has been advocating a new centreto replace the pool inUNB's Lady Beaverbrook Gymnasium when it closes.

He said the project has never been in a better position.

"As we head into the next stage, when the municipalities have to make decisions about what they're going to invest in, I think that's where you get into analyzing those pros and cons and determining, you know, which direction to go," he said.

A new aquatics facility is one of the City of Fredericton's capital priorities.

The report will now go to the municipalities for their recommendations.