WILMINGTON — A 135-acre recreation complex is coming to New Hanover County, making it the second mega-sports facility project announced recently for the area.
READ MORE: Potential Northside sports and culture complex stirs debate over funding, impact
While downtown’s Northside could potentially have Optimism Oasis, another facility in the northern part of the county is looking to become a mini Olympic-like village.
“Our goal is to open the buildings in 2028,” Wilmington Aquatic Center development team leader Kathy Pawlowski said. “We want to coordinate it with the Olympics coming to the United States and the excitement over swimming that only happens, like, every four years.”
WAC and ACCESS of Wilmington — two sports and recreation nonprofit organizations — are collaborating to develop two facilities with a “park-like” feel in a mixed-use development at Murrayville Road near I-40. The aquatic and recreation centers will be developed in phases.
ACCESS, known for providing outdoor athletic opportunities for children and adults with disabilities at its Miracle Field at Olsen Park, is planning a 30,000-square-foot inclusive recreation center to host athletic programs. The indoor facility will have two basketball courts that can also be used as volleyball courts.
Also on the table is a potential event space outfitted with a kitchen to hold cooking lessons, but nothing has been officially decided, according to ACCESS executive director Paula Crozier. ACCESS is also considering working alongside Novant and nonprofits that support people with disabilities to allow their programs to use the center.
“We have always, always, wanted this to happen, and here we are to do it,” Crozier said. “We’ve been having this discussion on this building for many, many years. So this is just the natural progression.”
The design process for ACCESS’s Inclusive Recreation Center has been under way for approximately five years. WAC’s design began over a year ago, though it became a nonprofit in March this year. Pawlowski said prior to becoming official, members gathered over 2,300 names to submit to the county to build a community pool in the Murrayville area.
“To move this to reality, we needed to concentrate into a private nonprofit,” Pawlowski explained.
The collaboration with ACCESS came together over the last year after Chip Hicks, the developer for Miracle Fields, Olsen Park and Olsen Farm Soccer Fields, suggested merging the two concepts. This brought together a shared goal to combat drowning, a leading cause of death for young children and people with autism.
Connected by a walkway, WAC will have a neighboring year-round aquatic facility with indoor and outdoor 50-meter Olympic-sized swimming pools, a 25-yard warm water recreational pool, splash pad and therapeutic pool. Its pools will hold swim lessons, competitions, and recreational swim programs. It will also be a base for lifeguard, military, and first-responder training, and have a dive well for veterans to scuba dive for PTSD therapy.
ACCESS will be able to use WAC’s pools for therapeutic and recreational services.
“We’re hoping we’re going to have hydrotherapy pools. We don’t know if that’ll be in the aquatic center or if it’ll be over at our building, but there are definite collaborations there,” Crozier said.
Pawlowski revealed the plans include ACCESS and WAC buildings to use solar energy to cut down utility costs.
The facilities will be located in Olsen Farm Recreation Village, which also will house a hotel, shopping, restaurants, an outdoor event space, walking trails and green space. Developed by Chip Hicks, it will include apartments with 20% of its housing set aside for special needs, according to Pawlowski.
“You think about the Olympic Village: You have a place for people to stay and you have a place for people to get something to eat and you have a place for people to train and to compete. So, it’s our own little mini recreation village,” Pawlowski said.
Hicks has been developing Olsen Farms for 25 years, and will continue leading the Olsen Farm Recreation Village project. Port City Daily reached out to him for a comment but did not hear back by press.
The site is on a plot of land donated to the organizations by Peggy Olsen from Olsen Farms. Olsen also donated the land for the Miracle Field in 2008, the largest Miracle Field in America.
Later phases of the village include adding a new exit off of I-40 that goes directly to the facilities, and free shuttle buses that run between the village and Wilmington, according to Pawlowski.
Port City Daily asked how much it will cost to fund the project and what donors are being considered. Pawlowski from WAC’s development team said they are still working on estimates and don’t have any numbers to share yet with the public.
Crozier echoed that sentiment, but indicated funding sources will include grants, governments, private donors and the like.
Once operational, Pawlowski said the for-profit businesses in the village will help support the nonprofit facilities. Swimming pools also will be rented out for training — such as to military and high schools — to help with operational costs.
Project design concepts still need to be finalized and impact studies, such as engineering, wetlands, and traffic, need to be completed, before going through the rezoning process and breaking ground. Pawlowski said they are hoping to have all this done by the end of 2025.
“That’s our goal,” she said. “So that we can be — as a Christmas present to everyone — putting a spade in the ground at this time next year.”
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