The Bend Park & Recreation District will give the Bend Senior Center a $21.7 million makeover, one that will more than double the facility’s size, add new amenities aimed at all ages and change its name.

“This is probably the single-largest project in the district’s history,” said Brian Hudspeth, development director for the park district.

Earlier this week, the park district board authorized staff to move forward on permitting and development for the proposed 36,000-square-foot expansion.

The expansion will add a separate wing featuring an indoor pool, along with areas for group exercises. The expansion will also add a 9,800-square-foot second story, which includes an indoor walking track based on responses from users. The expansion will add to the existing 14,000-square-foot Bend Senior Center, and the new facility will be known as the Larkspur Community Center.

Don Horton, executive director of the park district, said the expansion will preserve the senior center’s activities and original focus, while opening up the facility to a new group of users.

“We’re not changing the use or intent of the existing facility by complementing that use,” Horton said.

The current cost estimate for the expansion would make the Larkspur Center the most expensive single-phase project in the park district’s history, Horton said. All but $342,000 of the total was accounted for in the district’s capital improvement plan, though Hudspeth emphasized that the final total could change once the design is complete.

“We feel pretty good during this design phase that we’ll find an extra $300,000,” Horton added.

The senior center, built by the city of Bend but owned and operated by the park district, opened its doors in 2001, as a facility where older adults could congregate, eat meals and take a variety of classes. Horton said a separate community room was added to the building in 2003.

Today, the facility hosts around 80 fitness classes per week, plus courses on topics ranging from Social Security to ukulele, according to Matt Mercer, director of recreation for the park district.

As Bend has grown, the number of older adults in the city has grown as well. Horton said senior citizens are the fastest-growing demographic in the community.

“And because of that, we need to find better ways to provide services to those folks,” Horton said.

He added that overcrowding at the Juniper Swim & Fitness Center, an all-purpose workout facility managed by the park district, was also a factor in the expansion. Currently, Horton said more seniors use Juniper Swim & Fitness Center than the senior center, and bringing more recreational facilities will allow the district to spread out its user base.

While the Juniper Swim & Fitness Center has multiple indoor pools, Horton said the pool proposed at the Larkspur Center will have warmer water, and a channel reminiscent of a lazy river. Mercer added that this will allow the park district to move some of its more therapeutic swim classes to Larkspur, freeing up Juniper to host more lap swimming.

Additionally, the expansion will feature a soft rubber jogging track, the first of its kind at a facility managed by the park district, around the edge of the building’s second story. The equipment will be open to all ages, though Mercer said the environment at Larkspur will be more laid-back than Juniper’s.

While the expansion will connect directly to the existing senior center, Mercer said it will have glass doors separating it from the rest of the building. He added that the district wanted to denote where the all-ages activities begin without keeping seniors from participating.

Construction is expected to begin during the spring or early summer of 2019, and Horton said it will continue for around 14 months. The district is planning a three- to four-month closure of the senior center, which Horton said will allow builders to get loud excavation work complete and to reconfigure utilities without disturbing the senior center’s occupants. The senior center will try to move classes scheduled during the closure, which is expected to take place during the summer of 2019.

“I think this allows us to be a lot more efficient,” Horton said.

— Reporter: 541-617-7818, shamway@bendbulletin.com