Multi-Year Effort to Update City's Public Recreation Facilities 'Well' Under Way
The 105,000 square-foot facility at Scioto Darby and Alton Darby Creek roads is expected to open in June 2025 and will include other amenities.
Construction rolls ahead on Hilliard’s Recreation and Wellness Campus, just west of Roger A. Reynolds Municipal Park.
The project, owing to negative soil conditions on the 125-acre parcel on which the campus is built, and to general inflationary factors, is over budget.
City Council will need to come up with about $10.8 million in additional funding, according to Hilliard City Manager Michelle Crandall.
Don McCarthy, president of McCarthy Consulting, the firm the city hired to manage the project, delivered his summary to City Council Dec. 11, its final regularly scheduled meeting of the year.
More than two years ago, the project was originally budgeted at about $68 million but McCarthy indicated from the outset that elevated water tables and other factors in the environmentally sensitive area, coupled with inflationary and post-pandemic factors, that it was likely the project would exceed that amount.
As those concerns came to pass, City Council last year approved the sale of bonds in the amount of $85 million to fund the project, made possible through the 0.5-percentage-point income-tax increase that Hilliard voters approved in November 2021, raising the city’s income-tax rate from 2.0 to 2.5%.
The additional half-percentage point is earmarked for the city’s recreation and parks department.
Through secured grants, and an additional $3 million in interest earnings, the city’s final cost for the campus was reduced from $106.3 million to 95.8 million, but the city still needs to come up with $10.8 million in additional funding to add to the $85 million bond issue previously approved. However, the amount of additional funds might be slightly reduced if city interest earnings exceed projections.
The project includes not only the 105,000-square-foot facility but other components and amenities.
It includes the construction of athletic fields: 20 natural-grass fields and two synthetic-turf fields, shelter houses and other supporting amenities for the athletic complex designed to attract regional tournaments to Hilliard.
It includes the extension of Cosgray Road from its current terminus at Scioto Darby Road through the campus via several roundabouts where it will meet Alton Darby Creek Road.
The project also includes restoration to the Clover Groff Run, a Big Darby Creek tributary to be widened to reduce soil erosion and improve water quality.
Much of the work is performed by local companies, Crandall said.
Hilliard-based industry leader Advanced Drainage Systems has installed an underground system of storm water chambers that collect, store, and discharge storm water runoff, both treating the runoff for contaminants and replacing the use of surface retention ponds.
Columbus-based Tarrier Steel Company is providing more than 1,000 tons of steel seen today as the skeleton of the structure continues to grow.
The campus is also to include a 25,000 square-foot Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center.
OSU is leasing the site within The Well and is to reimburse the city $5.7 million for its construction that is currently included in the $106.3 million overall project.
The medical center is to offer wellness, education, and clinical services including physical therapy, urgent care, orthopedic and sports-medicine providers, arthritis care, behavioral care, osteopathic manipulative therapy, nutrition counseling, and lifestyle medicine, according to David Ball, community relations director for Hilliard.
“The integration of medical services and educational programming within The Well reinforces our commitment to fostering a holistic approach to health and wellness for our residents. This facility will provide convenient access to high quality care right here in Hilliard,” Crandall said.
OSU officials also laud the collaboration and opportunity.
“Collaborating on this health and wellness project with the City of Hilliard allows the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center to provide residents greater access to high-quality care while expanding and strengthening our existing connections,” said Dan Like, chief administrative officer of Ambulatory Services for the Ohio State Wexner Medical Center.
Great article, Kevin. Thanks for keeping us informed on this huge project for Hilliard.