An open house concurrent with the grand opening of the Southern Recreation Center is scheduled for today, Feb. 23, between 4:30 and 7 p.m. The article below was originally published on Feb. 16.
Perhaps the most important thing you should know about Palm Coast’s new Southern Recreation Center is that you don’t have to be a tennis player or a pickleball player to go there. That’s why the emphasis on that happily open-ended word: Recreation. You can fill in your own kind of fun.
One of the center’s most inviting features is its two levels of lounging areas where anyone can pull up a chair, set up a laptop or a drink, if not preferably both, and hang out for a few hours, alone or in a group, maybe enjoying the play below–tennis to the west, pickleball to the east–or just the greenery beyond the courts.
Maybe you have a dog or two or three: you can bring them to the new 1.3-acre dog parks and their luxurious close-cropped lawns–one park for big dogs, one for small–not to mention the biggest pylons any canine has ever seen, and that should make lifting a leg and irrigating the gods a sublime experience: the dog park happens to be in the right of way of FPL’s high-voltage power lines, whose crackle and pop can only spark up the experience.
Maybe you’re into vegetable gardening but you’re not too keen on troubling with it in your own backyard, but you still want that earthy communion. You can do just that at the community garden’s 18 plots, six of them elevated, making them accessible to the disabled (and ADA compliant), all of them equipped with drip technology that minimizes the use of water, since it drips only what’s needed. Composting bins included. The all-organic garden was conceived by city staff and resident input and is co-managed by the city’s parks and recreation department and the master gardening program of the University of Florida’s extension office. (You can rent your own plot: call 386-986-2323 to add your name to the list.)
Maybe you’re among the thousands of people who’ve long enjoyed walking, running, biking the Lehigh Trail, whose trailhead at the Belle Terre Parkway end until now had been a decapitated twilight zone that required you to park on grass or mud across the boulevard and cross that river of heedless drivers. No more. The trailhead has been rebuilt, with a paved, un-cramped parking lot and 78 spaces, plus bathrooms, plus a bike repair station, plus a few lounging benches here and there.
And we haven’t yet said the first thing about tennis or pickle ball.
We’re making our way there (and you can make your way through it all when the city hosts a grand opening for residents on Feb. 23, from 4:30 to 7 p.m.) This is the $2.52 million trailhead the City Council approved in July 2022, with a $1.24 million grant from the state Transportation Department shouldering some of that and park impact fees picking up most of the rest. This is the $11.35 million Rec Center the council approved the same day, none of it paid out of the city’s general fund, which is supported by property taxes. Rather, park impact fees picked up $7.1 million, the State Road 100 Community Redevelopment Agency’s tax revenue picked up $3.5 million of it (so some property taxes were part of it), and a $739,000 Tourist Development Council grant covering the rest.
It’s been going from drawings to construction site to finished product since: this morning, as City Architect Eric Gebo, Sustainability and Resiliency Chief Officer Maeven Rogers and Communications and Marketing Supervisor Shannon Martin gave a reporter a tour of the entire grounds, workers were punch-listing their way through the building and the new courts, though for the most parks the place was approaching the immaculate. The two-story, 9,000-square-foot Rec Center building’s manages to be both imposing and recessive, sitting as it does beyond the tennis courts in a domain made its own.
“This is a new vernacular architecture for the city,” Gebo said. “It’s one of the most modern pieces of architecture that the city has ever, attempted. It’s really starting to inform some of the new direction that the city is going with their architecture. The fire stations are going to be very modern in design, the new public works facility along those same lines is going to be a very different, contemporary design, very progressive.”
You can see the difference between the Palm Coast Community Center’s more rounded, a touch pontifical look of archways and cupolas, and the strictly angular look of the Rec Center that nevertheless manages not to look a bit boxy (like City Hall). It evokes the modern but also harkens back to the architecture of the 1950s and 60s that favored streamlined, functional looks. “We have abandoned the barrel tile roof, the arched openings, the stucco finishes. It’s a new direction, really. It’s a new, more modern, contemporary architecture,” Gebo said. Frank Lloyd Wright would have approved.
Light-colored concrete, paving and rooftop material that reflects sunlight minimizes the “heat island effect” created by structures and roads that absorb heat. Covering the six pickle all courts will allow residents to play even in the dead of summer, when playing in uncovered environments is more straining. (There are no plans for covered tennis courts.) All the plants on the grounds are drought-tolerant.
The moment you step through the large glass entrance doors and onto the luxury vinyl tile the high ceilings and ambiant light from enormous windows as if lifts you skyward. It’s not huge. It’s roomy and inviting. Once it is done abandoning the City Marketplace location it occupied for five years, Redefined Food will be serving patrons from the first-floor kitchen, with round white tables arrayed indoors and outside on a large patio. “Redefined foods will be having a vegetable bed at our new community garden and they’ll be harvesting food, small amounts of food that they’ll be serving as well,” Rogers said.
They’ll serve indoors and outside on a large patio that’ll get even larger soon. There’s a planned expansion of the grounds which will extend its footprint. There are now 10 tennis courts. The expansion includes a stadium court and four additional clay courts. The stadium court will be adjacent to the Rec Center, giving patrons there unobstructed views. That’s also in design, but the work should begin within the year, Gebo said.
The bathrooms are equipped with banks of lockers (bring your own lock), shower and other necessities. You then make your way to those covered pickle ball courts, enticing even to someone who’s never held a pickle ball racket. It was quiet today as it won’t be when the courts are teeming with players and the courts’ perfect blues and grays start to get scuffed, scraped and spat on. But if pickle ball has ever had a cathedral, this is it, with its roof standing in for stained glass: The roof is partly covered with 201 solar panels, each producing enough electricity to provide 76 percent of the site’s power needs, according to a set of “sustainability data” released by the city.
Put another way, the estimated 138,000 kWh of free energy the panels will generate each year should yield savings of $537,508 in power costs over the next 25 years, assuming an average utility rate increase of 3.5 percent. That’s money saved for the general fund, which has to pick up all costs of the center from here on. A large-screen TV will include displays from an app that shows in real time the energy produced by the solar panels.
“Our utility bill, we’re expecting actually to be zero,” Rogers said. “By the end of the year hopefully we can take advantage of FPL’s net metering program, and we actually get paid some of that energy usage back.”
The building includes what it refers to as a fitness room, one of its walls paneled with mirrors, though it’ll have broader uses, and a multipurpose rooms (UF’s extension office will be using the space, among others), plus offices.
There’s a different kind of cynergy in play in the Rec Center’s design, combining green technology, conservation, sustainability, heat protection, and even workforce development, if you include the local merchants who’ll run the food concession and the pro shop. You see elements of each wherever you turn, down to the furniture made of recycled materials with fewer volatile organic compounds, or the plan to recycle pickleballs and tennis balls, the all-LED lighting. “So we’re really showing in our new buildings moving forward a fiscal responsibility to energy consumption and water consumption, lowering our utility bills, which allows the city to use that money for other things,” Rogers said.
To get back to pickleball: the city has lined up a tournament at the facility around St. Patrick’s Day, and does not expect it till be difficult to fill the calendar with tournaments or local play, Many Palm Coast residents–including Martin and her husband–have been in the habit of traveling to Pictona, the pickleball club in Holly Hill, which has 49 courts, 12 of them covered (plus a community garden). But it’s expensive: $400 for a one-person membership for the year, $15 for a day pass.
In comparison, it’ll cost $250 for a one-person membership at the Rec Center, $100 for children (as opposed to $200 at Pictona), $7 for a daily pass, with the option of buying 10 open-ended visits for $60. But keep this in mind: The city is inviting all residents to take advantage of its Welcome to Pickleball program, allowing residents to play up to 12 games for free as an introduction to the facility, before committing to an annual or daily pass. There are six uncovered pickleball courts in addition to the six covered ones.
See the full rate sheet here, including the Tennis Center.
“We don’t want our residents to have to drive to Daytona to play pickleball,” Rogers said. “We want our residents to work, eat, play here. So this is an epicenter of trying to accomplish that goal for the city.” There will be additional pickleball courts built in the future: part of those continuing expansions that are redefining the concept of recreation in the city, as the Southern Recreation Center appears to be doing already.
“This is the definition of community and what local governments can do for their community,” Rogers said. “Not only are we providing a safe space for residents and families to come enjoy: they can go to the community garden, they can go to the trail, they can come in and study, they can come to our programming, they can play sports, they can walk their dogs. So this facility to me, these grounds, are really what community is all about.”
Billy says
Wow! Wasteful spending. I really like the dog park with the 10 megavolt powerlines overhead, lol
James says
Those are power lines? I thought they were giant mosquito zappers. ;-)
Just wonder’n.
Neal Ecker says
Sorry, what is the address?
FlaglerLive says
Sorry, the article should have been more precise: 1290 Belle Terre Parkway, Palm Coast, right by the Tennis Center, and behind Fire Station 25.
James says
From the photo’s it looks like it’s in the middle of a swamp… I guess because it is.
13.7 million spent on that, and yet the city needs to raise the water rates to upgrade the water treatment systems?
Just an observation.
James says
“…Our utility bill, we’re expecting actually to be zero” Rogers said.
I wish I could say the same.
Just say’n.
Solar Guy says
You can!! Call Solar-Fit. They installed the 200 solar panels as well as the EV charging stations. They also happen to advertise on Flagler Live.
James says
I was speaking of the other “utility” bill.
Btw… I actually was considering installing a solar array myself in my backyard at one point.
Solar Guy says
Great idea. Once your panels are installed you have the suns free energy forever.
Chip says
Thanks for allowing the little plug.
Local says
Actually you have the sun’s power until the panels end up in a landfill in 20-30 years if they aren’t damaged by storms before then.
Solar Guy says
Don’t think so. The panels have a 40 year warranty. That’s pretty close to forever for most of us.
Loval says
Yeah… average is still 25 years no matter what your “warranty” says. What happens to the panels when they stop functioning? They go to a landfill. They can’t be reused or recycled.
Mary Smith says
Maybe you should have repaved rt. 100 and hwy. 95 intersection, before a recreational center and dog park, were are your priorities, tax dollars included?
Atwp says
Agree 100%.
PeachesMcGee says
PC has become infatuated with pickle ball. Intro to pickle ball and beginner lessons are no more.
The courts are only for advanced or pro players allowed. Daytona has courts that welcome all skills.
Katie Berry says
Spending is desperately needed on the roads in Palm Coast due to all the people moving here and that is better street lighting, slower speed limit restrictions 45 mph doesnt mean drive 55mph and in order to correct that you have to lower the speed limits in residential areas especially. The road lines need new paint updates especially near intersections and crosswalks around schools and the vicinity, larger one way street signs and paving over the damaged roads, it’s dangerous and it should be corrected before the flood gates open and then find your city/county struggling to correct in a desperate and fast way that ends up with continuous flaws. When the new communities fill up then you’ll see increased problems especially in the traffic department.
Sherri S says
This is ONE giant step for Palm Coast and much appreciated! My family & friends are looking forward to using the new facility for pickleball, food and fun! Well done, thank you!
JP says
I’d like to have street lights and sidewalks but as long as you get to play pickle ball I guess those kids can keep walking with no lights or sidewalks.
David Schaefer says
What about the roads Alfin.
Greg says
After reading the comments, I guess the public is not too impressed with the waste of money spent there. I already lost money before the vast extension. I wonder how much it will now lose a year? While the roads fall apart, we will soon need to ride our bikes on the sidewalk to get there.
J says
Thr people of palm coast are what make it undesirable. Look at all the miserable slobs complaining about this.
James says
Just between us slobs… look at the article… read it… read it real good.
Are you ready to pay the $400 annual membership fee?
Not me.
Yet a portion of my public tax dollars went to building this semi-private “resort” amenity while critical infrastructure that we all need goes into disrepair.
Sorry slob, I have a right to complain.
Just one slobs opinion to another.
J says
I’m not stupid enough to live in Palm Coast, but obviously you are, silly slob. Continue to stay and whine hehe.
The Sour Kraut says
And what will be the annual cost to maintain it? Meanwhile our roads crumble…
Alexander says
Roads are crowded and all the lines in the roads have disappeared. Drive around what once was beautiful dividers manicured has disappeared. Traffic everywhere and nothing is being improved. It is a shame when you elect the wrong people into office, this is what happens.
Where is this? says
Is this going to be at the new bridge they built over 100? Are there any plans to connect trails from Linear park to the awesome trails down south of 100 bulow creek area? Im confused as to where this is… Im all about renting a automatic watering garden plot!
TR says
It’s located on Belle Terre just past Royal Palms Dr on the left. It is just before the fire station #25. If you travel south on Belle Terre and you get to the fire station, you went to far. If you’re traveling North on Belle Terre and it is on the right directly next to (and kinda behind) fire station #25.
Hope this helps you know where it is.
Katherine Haldeman says
This is incredible. I’m excited to plan a visit to Palm Coast now!
TR says
If I may give you my two cents. Don’t waste your money to come visit Palm Coast. There are plenty of other places that would be more pleasant and enjoyable to visit.
Mary Smith says
$13.7 Million, spent on a Recreation Center, an enclosed walk over bridge on hwy.100, Why wasn’t this Money spent on road repairs, Rt.100 at 95 interchange, that should have been repaired first . You don’t even see anyone using the new enclosed walk over bridge over 100.
Joe says
The walkover bridge was a county job! Ry 100/I95 is a state job! Neither of those comes from palm coast money
Jackson Gallagher says
Will we be able to use our Florida Health Care Plans to cover the expense?
Billy says
Those mega watt powerlines are deadly. You get anywhere near them you can hear the amps of electric going threw them and yet they put a park bench underneath! Crazy!
Duane says
When everyone finds out that there are not enough courts and you spend more time waiting then playing, everyone will go to Pictona in Holly Hill. with 48 courts, free recreational actives, a putting green and a restaurant, that facility is wonderful.
Samuel says
Another waste of money which is all the officials are good at doing around here. They sure don’t seem to know what they are doing so, please remember them when you go out to vote.
Skibum says
There’s one thing for certain about some people around here, and that is hearing them complain incessantly about everything, even newly built recreation facilities that enhance our community and increase the options for residents to maintain healthy lifestyles!
Jack says
Are there basketball hoops? Are there open courts for kids to play a pickup match of tennis or pickleball?
Wow says
Haha! I’d like a covered walking or running track. But nope, PB and tennis or nothing. Kinda makes you wonder who was on the planning committee doesn’t it??
Ray K. says
Why can’t we just have the YMCA come in a build their facility?? Be sooo much cheaper too….
BLINDSPOTTING says
Ray K: I believe that Alfin was suppose to make a Y happen, but
we don’t hear about it anymore, maybe we should ask him, it
would be ideal of course with a pool which would enchance
everyone’s quality of life not just a select group who love
pickle ball, we need to think about basketball courts too,
what’s with all the tennis and pickle ball courts, weren’t some
built a couple of years ago, appears that they geared it to a
certain crowd of enthusiasts and another Taj Mahal for them
to gather. With all the money that was spent they couldn’t
throw in some basketball courts and a pool and cut back on
other amenties like the lounges, our young people lounge
enough and the senors would have benefited from a pool
as well as all ages.
RW says
You get what you vote for!