- April 26, 2024
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An aquatic center entrepreneur is interested in buying or running the school-district-owned Belle Terre Swim & Racquet Club — a potential boon to the School Board, which has agonized over what to do with the much-beloved but financially underwater facility.
As it's aged and needed more repairs, the facility has become a financial burden that threatens to draw money away from the district's mission of educating K-12 students.
But those talks are early, and would hinge on Palm Coast OK’ing the construction of an access road to the club from Belle Terre Boulevard, school district staff told School Board members at an April 20 workshop.
“If that can not happen, then it does not appear he’s interested,” district Adult Education Director Renee Stauffacher told the board.
The community gym and pool was gifted to the school district from the ITT corporation before the city of Palm Coast’s 1999 incorporation.
As it’s aged and needed more repairs, the facility — whose user base is largely adult, although district swim teams also use the pool for practice — it has become a financial burden that threatens to draw money away from the district’s core mission of educating K-12 students.
That’s led the district to seek new options — including, potentially, partnerships with other local government entities or private businesses or organizations.
With the exception of board Chairman Trevor Tucker, who’s indicated his willingness to close it if the district can’t make things work financially, board members haven’t said what they’d do if such a partnership doesn’t materialize.
One entrepreneur has expressed some interest: Gus Calado, the CEO and head coach of Planet Swim Aquatics, a swim team program that operates facilities in Orange Park and Ponte Vedra Beach.
Calado has presented three options, Stauffacher told the board. Planet Swim could:
1)Buy the property
2)Lease it and take over operations
3)Partner with the School Board, leaving the maintenance of the facility’s grounds and capital projects up to the school district.
Calado told district staff he’d need to invest about $3 million to $5 million in the facility, in part to convert the tennis courts into another pool, Stauffacher said. But he was concerned about traffic for the facility — specifically, the large, charter-style buses used for swim team events.
The Belle Terre Swim & Racquet Club is in a neighborhood, accessed from residential Patric Drive. Calado proposed meeting with the city of Palm Coast to discuss a potential access road, but that meeting has not yet occurred, Stauffacher said.
Board member Jill Woolbright asked district staff members if they had evaluated the property’s value in case the board decides to sell or lease it. Stauffacher said that the district has not yet done so.
School Board member Colleen Conklin asked whether the facility’s losses during the pandemic were in line with those of other district programs. Finance Director Patricia Wormeck said no — largely because of the Swim & Racquet Club’s fixed costs.
For example, if the district has a decrease in demand for VPK classes, it can cut its losses by hiring fewer VPK teachers. But when there are fewer users at the pool, it can’t just cut the lifeguard.
The facility is running at about a $95,000 deficit, Stauffacher said.
Flagler Schools Superintendent Cathy Mittelstadt said she’d invited local governments for a discussion of the facility’s future. But Palm Coast — the government body School Board members had been most hoping would help —didn’t attend. The Flagler County government, which already contributes $25,000 a year for the facility, would like to continue doing so.
“Other than that, it’s been silence,” Mittelstadt said. “I think that kind of speaks to their potential involvement going forward.”
Stauffacher said that the facility’s fees would have to rise substantially from their current $225 per year to support the facility’s operational and capital costs.
Board member Janet McDonald asked how steep the increase would need to be.
Stauffacher said that other comparable facilities — gyms with a pool — charge about $412 per year, on average. If the district raised its rates from $225 to $375 per year, it could cover operational costs, but would be “nowhere close” to meeting the facility’s capital needs, she said.
McDonald noted that the community is growing, and suggested that Palm Coast community members ask the City Council to get involved.
The city runs the community’s other aquatic center, the Frieda Zamba Swimming Pool on Parkview Drive.
“They close their pool down several months out of the year because they don’t want the expense, but that means all the service comes to us,” McDonald said. “... They could certainly partner with us in a different way than we’ve ever done before.”
