January 2023

Renovated aquatic center reopens

with international attention

The long-awaited renovation of Fort Lauderdale’s aquatic center has opened to the public and is already drawing international attention. The prince and princess of Monaco joined local officials for a special celebration ahead of this month’s grand opening.

It was a true honor to have Prince Albert II and Princess Charlene tour the facility and see the new state-of-the-art competition pools and one of the tallest dive towers in the world. Their visit is the beginning of a new era of international acclaim for the facility, which is also home to the International Swimming Hall of Fame.

The prince and princess have a keen interest in the aquatic center and museum.

Prince Albert is a 2011 gold medallion honoree at ISHOF for his promotion of swimming, and Princess Charlene is a former Olympic swimmer who has founded a charity to teach children to swim. The prince’s uncle, Jack Kelly Jr., served as ISHOF president from 1981 to 1984, and his aunt, Mary Freeman Spitzer was an Olympic swimmer and ISHOF honoree.

The renovation not only provides a significantly improved place for local residents to use, it is expected to restore Fort Lauderdale as a premier destination for competitive swimming and diving. While the prince and princess were visiting, collegiate teams from around the country were already using the pools for winter practice.

Before it closed for reconstruction, the aquatic center had been home to numerous international and national competitions and exhibitions, with many competitive and Olympic swimmer and divers training there. The complex’s legacy includes the Annual College Swim Forum, U.S. National Swimming Championships, YMCA National Swimming & Diving Championships, U.S. Masters National Swimming Championships, NCAA National Water Polo Championships and the FINA/U.S. International Diving Invitational.

The city awarded a contract four years ago to rebuild the center. The signature feature is the 27-meter dive tower with nine platform levels – the first permanent 27-meter dive tower in the Western Hemisphere. The tower has already earned a top architectural design award for its iconic sculptural form.

The old 50-meter main competition pool was removed and replaced with a fully FINA compliant pool that is 53 meters by 25 meters with 10 lanes. The 50-meter training pool was repaired with new surfacing and gutters.

The city installed a new filtration system, pumps and chlorination system and raised and resurfaced the pool decks to allow deeper pool depths for competition-level use.

The project also included new grandstands, locker rooms, stadium lighting and restrooms. In the coming months, I hope the city will finalize a deal with the Hall of Fame that will reimagine its part of the complex into a contemporary, high-end facility that will create a signature look and feel for the entire site.

At its heart, the aquatic center remains a place available to families for lap swimming and diving, helping make the sports and water activities part of life for young and old alike.

This project has been part of the city’s ongoing efforts to expand amenities for our residents.

We built the DRV PNK Stadium and brought major-league soccer to town. With the help of the Florida Panthers hockey team, we are renovating War Memorial Auditorium into a modern event venue that will also have ice rinks available to the public and team use. We’ve expanded parks and recreation offerings with a just-signed agreement to create a major pickleball complex, plans to build an arts park and cultural center downtown and upgrades to neighborhood parks across the city through our parks bond program.

Fort Lauderdale is truly a great place to live and work and is gaining attention around the world for this great quality of life. 

Yours,

Dean