Pre-Development Planning
Contract Negotiations
Environmental Sustainability
Design and Construction Management
Master Budget Development
Master Schedule Development
Project Accounting and Management
Furniture, Fixtures & Equipment
(FF&E) Procurement
Project Close Out
In 2014, the City of Merriam, Kan., began a conversation about the future of recreation in its community. After years of study, community meetings and the completion of a Master Plan, in September 2017, voters approved the City issuing $24 million in bonds to build a new $35 million community center and implement a new 10-year quarter-cent tax to pay for the bonds.
Shortly thereafter, the City chose CBC Real Estate Group to perform Owner’s Representative Services for the construction of a new 66,000-square-foot aquatic and community center. In this role, CBC acted on behalf of the City to manage design, construction, budgeting, scheduling, accounting and all communications activities related to the project, which is located across Ikea Way, just east of Merriam City Hall and the police department.
The project’s design kicked off in fall 2017 when the City created a team to guide the process, which included City staff, CBC and technical experts being led by McCarthy Building Companies, Clark & Enersen and Perkins&Will. City Council approved the project design in September 2018, and construction will start on the site in October 2018. The majority of the facility, including the critical summer component of the pool, was opened in July of 2020.
Key amenities at the new community center will include a walking/jogging track, full-size gymnasium, fitness center, group exercise and multi-purpose classrooms, meeting and event space (room for a 250-person banquet), two birthday party rooms, indoor aquatics, featuring: four 25-yard lap lanes, tall slide and family slide, lazy river, zero-depth entry, splash and play features, and therapy pool; outdoor aquatics, featuring: eight 25-meter lap lanes, two one-meter diving boards, zero-depth entry, splash and play features, shade structures, and on-deck concession cart. It will houses Parks and Recreation Department staff offices and facility support space.
In 2021, the Design-Build Institute of America’s Mid-America Region (DBIA-MAR) recognized the Merriam Community Center with a Merit Award in the Institutional Category.
