New Tampa rec center due for expansion | Florida "Foreclosed ...

NEW TAMPA ?

NEW TAMPA As one of the city?s busiest community centers, the New Tampa Recreation Center is ready for more breathing room.

Only 4 years old, the 19,568-square-foot, city-owned operation is slated to expand to nearly double its existing size.

Tampa Parks and Recreation Department officials are planning a 14,000-square-foot addition at the complex adjacent to New Tampa Community Park and the Freedom High and Liberty Middle school campus in Tampa Palms. Construction is expected to begin early next year.

?This joint is jumping,? site supervisor Patricia Gross said last week of the New Tampa Recreation Center at 17302 Commerce Park Blvd.

On that day, throngs of youngsters buzzed in and out of the complex?s lobby and training rooms.

Outside the center, watchful parents monitored toddlers and young school-aged children swinging, dangling, sliding and climbing on playground equipment.

During the summer, the community center offers a respite for parents seeking a family-friendly environment where their children can be active, motivated and entertained while they are out of school.

The complex also serves as a refuge for daring adolescents eager to try high-flying maneuvers at a state-of-the-art outdoor skate park.

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The expansion is slated for the side of the recreation center nearest Commerce Park Boulevard and the playground. No rendering is available, and the permitting process has not been completed.

Park and recreation department officials are designing the new space to accommodate more gymnastics training, a climbing wall, a conference room, restrooms and a couple of new offices. The center also will introduce a workout/fitness area for adults.

?What we have are a lot of parents sitting in the lobby waiting for their kids to finish classes,? said Brad Suder, superintendent of planning, design and natural resources for the city?s parks department. ?We want to give them an opportunity to get some exercise.?

That will come as welcome news to Brenna Sands of Cross Creek, who drives her daughters, Hallie, 8, and Adele, 6, to the center three nights a week. Hallie participates in skateboarding and is enrolled in a gymnastics class. Adele focuses on gymnastics and dance.

?It?s convenient,? Sands said. ?I can drop off the boys at the Y then come over here.?

The New Tampa Family YMCA is on nearby Compton Drive in Tampa Palms.

When Sands learned about the community center?s plans to expand, she expressed interest in a new workout area to offer yoga or Pilates classes.

Parents such as Sands can spend several hours at the recreation center while their children are in class.

Roxana Sellhorn, also of Cross Creek, has no intention of taking her daughters anywhere else.

She has been driving her daughters, Monica, 11; Sofia, 8; and Gabriela, 5; to the community center for gymnastics and dance classes since it opened.

?It?s nice because all three girls have their extracurricular activities all at the same place,? Sellhorn said. ?We don?t have to drive all over town.

?All the coaches here are really great. They teach them more than about sports. It?s about discipline, responsibility and good sportsmanship.?

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The center opened in May 2008, to mass appeal. The city decided the burgeoning New Tampa area was an ideal spot to expand its popular gymnastics program.

Hours before it opened, parents began lining up in the predawn hours to have a chance to enroll their children in the center?s highly regarded gymnastics and dance programs.

The gym opened with two regulation-size tumbling mats, a dozen balance beams, three vaulting stations and four sets of uneven parallel bars.

There is also a high bar and rings for the boys, a climbing wall for preschoolers and a separate room for meetings and dance ? tap, ballet and hip hop ? classes.

The center offers youth soccer and young children?s T-ball, and adult soccer and baseball leagues play at the adjacent community park, Gross said.

Parents? interest in the gymnastics and dance classes remains strong.

Jennifer Oseid of Arbor Greene waited two years before space opened up for her 6-year-old twin girls, Lyla and Anna, to enroll in the center?s gymnastics and dance programs.

?It?s a long night,? Oseid said smiling, referring to her wait. ?Each class is an hour with a half-hour in between, plus playtime. You can?t walk by the playground without spending 10 minutes there.?

The training sessions are affordable, Gross said.

The cost is $30 for a 45-minute class and $36 for an hour-long session, Gross said. Skateboarders pay $4 to train for two hours on a 15,000-square-foot skate park designed to appeal to skaters of all skill levels.

?It?s the best buy in town,? Gross said of the recreation center.

Article source: http://www2.tbo.com/news/northeast/2012/jul/18/neopeno1-new-tampa-rec-center-due-for-expansion-ar-431930/

Source: http://getwealthyfl.com/wordpress/new-tampa-rec-center-due-for-expansion/

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