NEW SAN BRUNO RECREATION AND AQUATIC CENTER
The Foundation is proud to support the design and construction of a new San Bruno Recreation and Aquatic Center in San Bruno City Park. ​With the 2024 Grand Opening of the new San Bruno Recreation and Aquatic Center – a gleaming, state-of-the-art facility in San Bruno City Park – the San Bruno community is realizing a lasting legacy of triumph over tragedy.
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In 2015 and 2016, through the Foundation’s first Community Listening Campaign and the City of San Bruno’s subsequent community facilities visioning process, the people of San Bruno identified new community facilities – and, in particular, a new combined recreation center and swimming pool facility to replace the aging Veterans Memorial Recreation Center and San Bruno Pool – as the top priority for the use of the restitution funds. For the past eight years, the Foundation has been committed to seeing the Recreation and Aquatic Center project come to fruition, contributing grants totaling up to $51.5 million to the City for the facility’s design and construction.
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​RAC PROJECT
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In February 2017, following the completion of the Community Facilities Vision Plan, the San Bruno City Council voted to move forward with the construction of a new recreation center and all-season swimming pool facility in San Bruno City Park and requested that the Foundation provide a grant of $50 million to fund the planning, design, and construction of the facility. In March 2017, the Foundation Board approved a resolution supporting the concept of a $50 million strategic grant to the City for the design and construction of the new facility and directing the Executive Director to proceed with negotiating such a grant arrangement with the City.
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The Foundation funded the Recreation and Aquatic Center project with a series of grants covering different components of the project. Starting in 2017, the Foundation approved eight grants totaling up to $51.5 million related to the project. The final construction grant of $40.5 million was approved in 2021, and then in April 2023, the City requested and the SBCF Board approved up to an additional $1.5 million for construction contingency.
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In June 2021, the San Bruno City Council approved the center’s design, the execution of the construction contract with Lathrop Construction, the project
budget of just under $60 million, and a funding plan for the $10 million that exceeds the Foundation’s contribution. With all environmental approvals
and building permits in hand, the City began the construction process at the end of the summer.
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San Bruno celebrated the start of construction on the new Recreation and Aquatic Center in San Bruno City Park with an August 27, 2021, groundbreaking ceremony.
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2024 GRAND OPENING
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On Saturday, August 24, 2024, after three years of construction, the Foundation celebrated - with the City of San Bruno and more than one thousand members of our community - the Grand Opening of the new San Bruno Recreation and Aquatic Center!
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Located in San Bruno City Park, the Recreation and Aquatic Center features a full-size gymnasium, fitness center, indoor running track, indoor and outdoor swimming pools with adjacent party rooms, a large community hall with a catering kitchen, meeting rooms, and more. We invite everyone to visit the new Recreation and Aquatic Center and see all that this facility has to offer. Visit the City of San Bruno website at www.sanbruno.ca.gov/431/Recreation-and-Aquatic-Center-RAC for information about hours, memberships, programs, and facility rentals.
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RAC STARTUP OUTREACH AND PROGRAMMING GRANT
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To ensure that the City has the flexibility to both address the recreational needs of the community and set the facility on a financially sustainable course, this fall the Foundation committed $2.25 million in grant funding to support startup programming and outreach activities at the new center. The three-year grant will help the City bridge the opening of the facility to full operations and test various marketing, outreach, recruitment, scholarship, and other initiatives to encourage community members to use the facility so that it generates sufficient revenues to sustain its operations for the ongoing benefit of the community.
