City plans to buy Sanford Wellness for west-side indoor recreation center

The city of Sioux Falls might be purchasing the Sanford Wellness Center near Ellis Road and converting it into a public recreation center with an indoor pool.

The purchase is being proposed as part of the city’s upcoming bond, which also will include recommended funding for an indoor pool and recreation center at Frank Olson Park and a new amenity-filled outdoor pool at Kuehn Park.

The offer from Sanford Health to buy its building at 8701 W. 32nd St. was a situation where “the stars kind of aligned, and we had a win-win for both Sanford and the city,” director of parks and recreation Don Kearney said.

Steve Young, president of Sanford Sports, had said there might be an opportunity to partner on a deal but wanted to see first how public input played out as the city contemplated its options for pool replacements, Kearney said.

Public sentiment heavily skewed toward an indoor option on the east side and was more split on the west side, though it still leaned toward indoor use. Budget limitations, however, meant the city recommended an indoor option only for the east side, leaving it still well below the typical indoor recreation space offered per capita in comparable communities.

With Sanford Wellness, which Sanford Health is proposing to sell to the city for $9 million, the city would gain 70,000 square feet of space, including an additional pool. For comparison, the Midco Aquatic Center is 60,000 square feet.

“We’re really excited about being able to move the needle on indoor rec space,” Kearney said. “And it also aligns with when we survey our residents and ask what their top recreation needs and priorities are, they tell us indoor playgrounds, indoor running and walking tracks and indoor exercise facilities are among the top five things they want to see.”

The overall bond is being proposed not to exceed $77 million. For context, it likely would cost nearly five times more than the $9 million the city is proposing to pay for the Sanford building to build something similar new.

“The city is in pursuit of indoor recreation for really good reasons. A community of this size should have a lot more offerings for our citizens, and we’re certainly excited to be able to partner with the city in that sense,” Young said.

“At the same time, we’re continually an organization that’s going to strategize on how best we focus and how best we can serve the people we do. At the end of the day, we take care of people, and this allows the city to grow in areas they want to and areas we think we can serve our population of patients as well.”

The Sanford Wellness building opened in 2006 originally under Sioux Falls Family YMCA in partnership with Sanford Health before transitioning fully to Sanford about a decade later.

Sanford plans to retain and update its wellness center at 4201 S. Oxbow Ave., including locker room and pool repairs and other facility updates.

“We are not stepping away from the wellness center business. We’re just refocusing into one location,” Young said, adding that as the concept evolves, it will include reinvesting in “more medically based and medical wellness opportunities.”

The city also would make an estimated $3 million in upgrades to the west-side location, such as the roof and parking lot, plus some minor cosmetic improvements, Kearney said.

“I definitely think we’ll transition to more of a family- and kid-friendly type of facility,” he said, adding he sees opportunity to add programs, camps and classes and to convert some rooms to spaces for events such as parties.

The building currently includes:

• Performance area
• Zero-depth pool with slide
• Cycling studio
• Whirlpool
• Steam room
• Sauna
• Racquetball courts
• Basketball courts, college and high school court size
• Cardio and weight equipment
• Running/walking track
• Kids room

Sanford would continue to lease space in the building for its physical therapy program that currently operates there. The city hasn’t determined what it will call the new west-side recreation center and said there would be naming opportunities available for donors.

With the new west-side building combined with Frank Olson and potentially a renovated Sioux Falls Convention Center, Sioux Falls would make a significant dent in indoor recreation space by 2030, Mayor Paul TenHaken said.

“We know we’ve had some catch-up to do in this space,” he said. “We know Rome wasn’t built in a day but with three opportunities in front of us, this is a really big opportunity for kids in this community.”

While the Sioux Falls City Council is expected to vote on the aquatics bond in early May, nothing would change at Sanford Wellness until late this year when the city would take possession.

“For the next six to seven months, things will remain status quo for our members and their experience,” Young said. “At that point when the city takes over operational control of the facility, I anticipate there continuing to be opportunities for all of them to maintain a presence within that community asset.”

The fitness landscape in Sioux Falls has changed considerably since Sanford brought the wellness center to the far west side, but for the better, he added.

“I’m super proud of the Sioux Falls community in general, including private business for the fact that the wellness landscape has changed dramatically in the last two decades,” Young said. “There are a lot of different service offerings for citizens to gain a healthy lifestyle and be fit and have opportunities … and this continues to move the needle back toward the city in recreational opportunities.”