New London selects national firm to run new recreation center
Goal is to be profitable within three years
By John Penney
Day Staff Writer
New London ? The city’s preferred choice to run its new recreation and community center promises to get the facility on a path to profitability within three years after it opens next summer.
Power Wellness, a Lombard, Ill., company that specializes in overseeing sports and fitness center facilities for colleges, municipalities and health care businesses across the country, beat out three other national firms to become a selection committee’s choice to manage the 57,000-square-foot center on the Fort Trumbull peninsula.
Attorneys for the city and Power Wellness expect to have a proposed contract ready for the City Council to discuss and possibly approve on Jan. 6. Though specifics were not discussed at Monday's council meeting, Felix Reyes, the city's director of economic development and planning, said Tuesday the agreement will likely run for three to five years and require the company to meet specific financial benchmarks.
Power Wellness founder and CEO Ken Gorman told councilors his firm has the “resources, systems and people” to make the $40 million facility successful.
“Not just after the first six months, but two, five and 10 years down the road,” he said.
In addition to running the center, Power Wellness will be responsible for finding sponsorships and other funding options to help offset costs so the facility is a “self-sustaining asset,” according to city bid documents.
Gorman said one of his company’s key goals is to “achieve accelerated path financial sustainability” at the center. He said that, especially in the early years of operation, additional money will be needed to supplement membership income and keep the center running.
“We want to make sure that by year three we’re on a path to profitability," Gorman said. "That’s going to take a lot of hard work to get to that point.”
Power Wellness, founded in 1996, manages public membership-based recreation, fitness and aquatic centers. Since 1997, the company has opened 30 new centers in 14 states that Gorman described as “very similar” to the New London facility.
Gorman laid out a six-month timeline ahead of a June “soft” center opening that calls for hiring key managers ? including a bilingual center director ? creating programs and setting dues and membership prices. He said the company would work with community members, city recreation employees and local health care professionals to create programming.
Membership costs and annual operational budgets will be worked out between Power Wellness and city officials using a template similar to one used to set admission prices and run Ocean Beach Park.
Councilor John Satti, echoing concerns from his colleagues and several residents, asked if the needs of lower-income residents would be considered. The city’s bid requests note “All residents of New London will be able to utilize the programs and resources of (the center) regardless of the ability to pay.”
Gorman said he expected the company would spend time in January and February figuring out an equitable dues structure that would be affordable for those at, or below, the poverty line.
Mayor Michael Passero said he was confident “every family, and certainly every child, has access (to the center).”
Reyes said the questions of access and sustainability were raised before the first shovelful of dirt was removed at the construction site.
"Those are the questions we started with: How do we create a building and take care of our own and still be able to afford to maintain it?" he said on Monday. "And today is the answer and the solution to that. Everything is about partnerships, about finding that perfect balance between temperament, experience and understanding of our population, our neighborhoods, our history and the people that work here."
The facility, which will house a two-court gym, fitness center and eight-lane pool, along with office and community space, is scheduled to host an opening ceremony before July 4 and fully open to the public later that month. The city’s recreation department will also have offices inside the new center and will run some of its programming from the site.
j.penney@theday.com