Conway breaks ground on new $35M multi-activity aquatics center

CONWAY, Ark. (KATV) — The $35 million never-before-seen, multi-activity Conway Aquatics Center is now breaking ground for construction after the city board approved it back in 2020.

This center is going to have a wide variety of activities, including the first public community pool. Additionally, the center will have a café, tennis courts, pickleball courts, volleyball courts, a gym, community party rooms, and even a lazy river.

“What we wanted to do was make sure we tackled this project in a responsible manner so that the cost wouldn’t balloon out, but also we wanted to be able to deliver on some of the promises that we made," said Bobby Kelly, Conway's communications coordinator.

This center is providing amenities that didn't exist before in Conway.

A lot of the amenities that currently don’t exist in the city, like we don’t have public community party rooms," said Kelly. "It’s going to have a café where you can order food, get something to eat. It’s going to have tournament quality and tournament space for volleyball, for indoor pickleball. You’re going to have an outdoor pool with sweet slides and a cool lazy river.

The center needed actual road infrastructures built in order for the community to be able to access the facility.

“We had to build in road infrastructures so folks could actually get to it," said Kelly. "It’s off of Corporate Drive. Most folks in Conway have no idea where that’s at. For folks who are driving by in the future, you’ll definitely see it now because construction has started on it and they are starting to clear some of the land to make way for some of the bigger projects.”

According to Kelly, this center will partake in Conway's economic boom.

This sort of further solidifies Conway as sort of this youth sports capitol of the state of Arkansas," he said. "With all the offerings that we have, all the options that we have, will certainly give a lot of folks a moment of pause to maybe look at Conway as a place to go for the weekend, or a tournament, or the day, who knows, and stay here maybe and spend money here.

The Conway Aquatics Center is expected to open to the public by the summer of 2025. The center was funded through bonds within the city.