‘Getting it right.’ Pasco’s $47M aquatic center officially has a ‘centerpiece’ home
Pasco’s Public Facilities District is set to buy land for its Aquatic Facility this week, and enter into an agreement with the city that will see construction begin on the roads through the Broadmoor development.
It’s a major win for the landowners, the city and the facilities district board, with the long-anticipated decision expected to spur growth in the West Pasco development.
The facilities district is paying $4.7 million for two lots totaling 13 acres.
The site sits just south of the future intersection of the Sandifur Parkway Extension and the new Road 108. That’s twice as much land as the district initially set out to look for.
PFD Director Matt Watkins told the Tri-City Herald that the board made the decision to buy enough land for future expansion.
The district plans to use the first 6 to 8 acres for the initial phases of the $47 million aquatic facility, with the remainder set aside for either future expansion or for lease to third party partners.
That could help open the door to the civic campus the facilities district and the city have hoped to create in the area.
The vote to buy the property was unanimous, with one member absent. The board includes volunteers who have helped guide the process from conception through the sales tax vote that is paying for the construction.
Watkins said the land selection process has been tricky and taken a bit longer than anticipated, but it was important to get this right.
“They’re trying to do their best to future proof it. It’s tremendous ... I think things are going to go much quicker now,” he said. “It was important to get it right. I think this site is about getting it right. This is going to be a great location for Pasco and for the Tri-Cities”
Watkins gave the Herald a tour of the site earlier this year, showing off the views of the Columbia River and the Tri-Cities’ ridgelines from where the aquatic center will be.
It’s also centrally located off Interstate 182, which is getting a complete overhaul in the area to reduce congestion.
Blazing a trail
The facilities district also approved an agreement with the city and Broadmoor Properties to begin financing those new streets.
Initially the district expected to pay about $7 million upfront for roadwork and be reimbursed later once more businesses were in development. Instead, the new agreement lets the PFD pay an annual percentage of up to $300,000.
They’re currently projecting costs to come in at just over $250,000 annually and then drop as more development happens.
Watkins said this new agreement means they won’t have to sacrifice amenities for roadwork.
“To pay for a road before you even put in a slide was making it so it wouldn’t work. The real hero in all this is (Pasco Deputy City Manager) Richa Sigdel,” Watkins said. “She took what we thought was an intractable problem and ended up coming in with a variety of solutions.”
He said the facilities district hopes to have design and validation done this summer, which could allow for a groundbreaking ceremony sometime later this year.
The roadwork is likely to be done by next summer, but there are already dirt roads running through the development being used by work crews laying infrastructure and working on residential properties.
The center will likely be managed by city of Pasco parks employees, who have been attending meetings and offering insight on the process. These employees already manage Pasco’s Memorial Aquatic Center.
Centerpiece of Broadmoor growth
The road payments are part of a Tax Increment Finance District set up between the city of Pasco and the Broadmoor Development, it was one of the first approved TIF districts in the state.
It’s a type of a tax offset that allows the city to use a bond to pay for roadwork and then use property tax from the development to pay off the bond.
That helps relieve the burden of infrastructure costs for developers. In this case, it’s taking more than $40 million off of the plate of the businesses that would eventually buy and develop the land by using their own property tax to pay for it.
The facilities district is entering what’s called a “late comers agreement,” which means they’ll help pay some of that roadwork for now, and be reimbursed later once other lots are sold.
The deal makes the aquatic center the first commercial tenant announced for the 750-acre development, which is expected to grow in value to about $2 billion.
It will also be the centerpiece of Pasco’s expected staggering growth over the next 20 years, with as many as 60,000 new residents expected.
About 14,000 of those rooftops will be within the Broadmoor development.
Residential developments are already springing up along the property’s northern border with Burns Road. Other smaller developments are moving forward to the north of Burns Road, with hundreds of new homes already in the works.
The Broadmoor Development encompasses a total of 1,200 privately owned acres, but plans for the remainder have not been announced.
The PFD’s plans are a major win for the development, which was sent reeling when a proposed second Tri-Cities Costco was scrapped in favor of a Richland location.
The reasons for Costco pulling out of the Broadmoor negotiations have not been publicly confirmed. The TIF and other roadway improvements along the Broadmoor-Road 100 corridor would have paid for much of the infrastructure work. Combined the two road projects account for more than $100 million worth of work.
It’s unclear if their new site, on state-owned land in a former orchard near Queensgate, could even be eligible for a tax offset like a TIF district to help reduce build costs.
Tentative plans
While an aquatic center is not an amusement park-style water park, there are some similarities and shared amenities.
The aquatic center will be built around Olympic-style swimming pools for competition and activities, but it will also have fun features for the community to enjoy.
The first phase of the park was originally planned to take up about 6 acres, with plans to start with just under 47,000-square-feet of indoor and outdoor features, including an indoor leisure pool, outside activity pool, a party room, classroom, outdoor concessions and locker rooms.
An outdoor competition pool would add another 13,000 square feet to the project. Because of the savings with the road work, the board will be able to add more of the features community members have asked for, so voters can expect those initial plans from 2022 to change to get more bang for their buck.
The board hopes to have the validation portion of the design process approved at their July meeting, meaning the building will move forward taking the center from the concept and early design stage to planning for construction.
That’s also when the public will have a good idea of what to expect from Phase 1, which they’re still hoping to complete by late 2025 or early 2026.
“The designers and builders have been going through and coming up with amenities lists,” Watkins said. “There’s designing kind of going on, the critical point with this validation is saying we’ve done the conceptual stuff if you want to go forward we need approval.”
So far a lazy river has been at the top of the wish-list.
Members of the board have visited several aquatic centers across the state and elsewhere for inspiration. The Snohomish Aquatic Center is one example of what the Pasco facility could end up resembling.
Their dream of a civic campus includes Ben Franklin Transit planning a Park and Ride and the city of Pasco hoping to add a new community center next to the water park. Mid-Columbia Libraries is also considering whether to locate a branch on the civic campus.
Watkins said the city plans to set up their portion of the civic campus on an adjoining 5-acre lot.
The transit agency received grant funding for buying land in West Pasco, but some members of that board have balked at the price.
They have not yet made a decision on that land purchase. Watkins said the PFD will work with transit officials to ensure there is safe, reliable access to the water park should they choose to put the park-and-ride elsewhere.
Pasco voters approved a sales tax increase in 2022 to pay for the aquatic center project. Tax collections started last year and are bringing in about $350,000 to $400,0000 a month.
The facilities district plans to take out a bond for about $40 million to pay for the project now and use the monthly sales tax income to pay it down over 25 years.
