Plans now are in place for the exterior design of the Upper Arlington Community Center, as the construction team and city officials work to dial in costs and expect to break ground for the facility in the spring.

When the city's first community center starts to go up at the Kingsdale Shopping Center next year, it will be five stories with a terracotta, or fire-clay brick exterior, rather than a "glass curtain wall" design that also had been considered.

Ground should be broken on the 144,000-square-foot building in April, and officials said they're hopeful the community center open to the public in the first quarter of 2025.

"We're looking at being substantially done with construction right around Christmas of 2024, which means we'll open, probably, in February or March (2025)," City Manager Steve Schoeny said Sept. 6.

The latest timeline for the project is a slight adjustment from initial projections that the community center would open in spring or summer 2024.

Schoeny said the schedule has been affected by inflation and supply chain issues and added that further delays would be built in if they will yield cost savings related to construction materials.

"It makes a material difference (in costs) when you need your material," he said.

In addition to the schedule, Schoeny said inflation is the primary culprit behind the rising price tag for the overall project.

In December 2020, the Upper Arlington Community Center Feasibility Task Force concluded the city could build a 95,300-square-foot community center at an estimated cost of $54.2 million without raising taxes. Under that plan, another 60,000 square feet was to be built into the facility at an estimated cost of $16 million, but those costs were designed to be offset through leases to private tenants.

Since that time, the height of the building has been reduced from six to five floors, but the size of the community center has increased to 105,000 square feet. Conversely, the leasable space has been reduced to 39,000 square feet.

Now, the estimated price of the community center portion of the building now is expected to cost $70 million to $72 million, and the leasable space is expected to cost $15 million to $16 million.

The city plans to finance the project through a combination of about $14 million in city cash, $50.5 million in municipal bonds, $8 million in privately raised funds and revenues the city will receive from community center tenants.

Schoeny said rents for the leasable space will be increased from original price points to help address inflation related to the building's construction, and he said the city is well positioned to afford the community center portion.

"The city is doing very, very well financially," he said. "As of the end of July, we were up 14% year-to-date from 2021 for revenues. We were spending 4% under our budget this year."

While there are no signed lease agreements with tenants for the leasable space, Schoeny said the city is doing "very well in negotiations" with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center to occupy office spaces on the second and third floors.

"I think we'll get there," he said.

In the meantime, representatives from the city's design team of MSA Sport and Perkins&Will continue to hammer out parking plans for the facility.

Katie Freeman, an associate principal with MSA Sport and director of its Columbus studio, said there will be 758 spaces for the community center. She said about 35 will be adjacent to the facility, and the rest will be spread out between a parking garage for a neighboring senior housing development at Kingsdale, on the parking lot for Giant Eagle's Kingsdale Market District and within a one-story parking garage that would be built behind Giant Eagle.

"The 758 spaces that are allocated here are sufficient for the use of the community center," Freeman said. "We have enough parking on the site to use for the community center."

The interior of the community center is expected to include a fitness center, indoor swimming, primary locker rooms, a cafe and a large lobby on the first floor.

"This is probably where most people will spend most of their time in the building," said Keith Hall, managing principal for MSA Sport's Columbus Studio.

In addition to leasable office space, the second floor will feature a senior citizens' lounge, art room and outdoor patio.

The third floor will include leasable office space and a multi-activity court.

The fourth floor will include two full basketball courts, and the fifth floor will feature a track and a pre-function space for events like wedding receptions and conferences.

A full list of interior features, as well as ongoing updates to the community center project can be found at https://communitycenter.upperarlingtonoh.gov/.