Henrico YMCA Aquatic Center to open in Eastern Henrico
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Henrico County and the YMCA of Greater Richmond will dedicate the new $10-million Henrico YMCA Aquatic Center at 3201 Watts Lane in Eastern Henrico Tuesday evening, nearly 16 months after officials from both groups broke ground at the six-acre site.
Henrico County funded the center’s construction, but the YMCA oversaw that process and will manage and operate the facility, which is located adjacent to the Eastern Henrico Recreation Center and across Laburnum Avenue from the new Fairfield Area Library.
The center features an indoor heated pool for swim lessons, swim team, water fitness classes and other activities.
As part of the county’s agreement with the YMCA, all Henrico residents will be able to swim for free Saturdays and Sundays from 3 p.m. to 5 p.m., as long as they have a free YMCA account is required. You can create an account here.
Memberships also are available ranging from $20 per month (for teens) to $71 per month (for families).
Additionally, the center will support an expansion of the Learn to Swim program, which the YMCA has been running for 25 years in partnership with area school systems to ensure that every second-grader has the opportunity to learn water safety and basic swimming techniques.
The center also will host practices and meets for Henrico high school swim teams and be available for use by Henrico’s youth summer camps and community groups.
(Take a video tour of the new facility here: https://www.ymcarichmond.org/locations/henrico-ymca-aquatic-center/.)
The facility is opening a few months after its originally intended date. When county officials first announced plans for the center, it was expected to cost $8 million, but that number later grew to $10 million.
The facility is one of two funded wholly or in part by Henrico County in an effort to ensure that Henrico becomes a “drownproof” community. A similar public-private partnership is underway at Regency mall, where the former Macy’s building is being transformed into an aquatics facility through a partnership between the county, NOVA of Virginia Aquatics and Regency.
That project is expected to cost about $18 million; Henrico will contributed $1.75 million over a five-year period. The center will include an eight-lane 50-meter pool and two three-lane 25-yard pools. It’s expected to open in about a year.
