INFRASTRUCTURE: Bay Club, City of MB enter aquatic center agreement
by Mark McDermott
The City of Manhattan Beach may have found an answer to the expensive quandary of its disintegrating public pool.
The City Council last night entered an agreement with Bay Club, the high-end health club operator, to explore construction of a two-pool complex on City property adjacent to the Manhattan Beach Country Club, which the Bay Club operates.
If the details can be worked out, Bay Club would bear all the construction and operating costs for the pools, enter into a ground lease with the City, and give Manhattan Beach residents priority access to the complex.
Earlier this year the council commissioned designs for two options: the renovation of the 60-year-old Begg Pool, or the building of a complex that would include both a 25-yard recreational pool and a 35-meter competition pool. The renovation would cost an estimated $28 million and the complex $40 million.
But in May, shortly before the unveiling of those designs, Bay Club reached out to the City with a third option. The club expressed interest in a collaborative project. They met with City staff and the memorandum of understanding unanimously approved by the Council Tuesday night is the result.
Matthew Stevens, president and CEO of Bay Club, appeared via Zoom at Tuesday’s Council meeting.
“The structure that we brought forward is similar to our land lease that we have in operating the Manhattan Country Club,” Stevens said. “This is a land lease that we would do with the City of Manhattan Beach to build a private aquatic center owned and operated by the Bay Club. And then, inside of that, the agreement would include benefits for residents of the City of Manhattan Beach — as stated, a guaranteed walk-up fee that exists at Begg Pool would be available at the new aquatics center.”
The agreement also includes a $1 million contribution towards the renovation of Begg Pool. Stevens said that, like its contributions to the Manhattan Beach Education Foundation, this is a gesture meant to show that the Bay Club feels fortunate to be in the city.
“We operate over 100 pools,” he said. “We’ve got a lot of expertise in it. We’re not attempting to say that up to a million dollars will renovate Begg Pool for the next 20, 30, or 40 years. It just won’t. But we also know there needs to be some give back. We listened to the May 7 City Council meeting and [learned] there are certain immediate needs that needed to be addressed.”
The agreement parenthetically suggests a $15 walk-up fee for a full day pass. Resident Jeanne Fratello, during public comment, said that swimmers like herself currently pay $5 per hour at Begg, or $7 per hour in nearby El Segundo, with punch-passes lowering the cost. She said few swimmers had a need for a full day pass.
“I would give more consideration to the idea of an hourly rate and also the idea of a punch ticket where you could buy a series, and also the ability to reserve lanes for swimming,” she said.
Mayor Pro Tem Amy Howorth questioned the depth of the larger of the two pools. The junior pool depth would be three to four feet, per the agreement, and the larger competition-sized pool would be five to six feet deep.
“Folks I’ve talked to who do water competitions say it really should be six to seven feet,” Howorth said. “Was that a conscious choice to make it five to six deep? Or is that open [for negotiation], because we’re trying to get more lanes for things like water polo.”
It’s an open topic, to a certain extent,” Stevens said. “We need to make the pool depth for the competition pool at a level that would allow… the community and the members of Bay Club to use the pool as a social environment. If the depth is too deep, it eliminates that, and therefore makes it a much more difficult economic business proposal.”
Stevens, responding to a question from Mayor Joe Franklin, said the aquatic center would not host competitions.
“Because of the senior center there, this would not be constructed with the concept of being able to accommodate swim meets of any size or scope,” he said.
He also stressed the agreement is just an initial step to enable Bay Club to determine if the project is even feasible.
“We are willing to take on the cost of the environmental [impact reports] and some of the initial testing, at no expense to the city, to try to make sure that this is a viable option.”
Councilperson Richard Montgomery made the motion to approve the agreement, which was seconded by Franklin and approved in a 5-0 vote.
“This is just the first step, folks,” Montgomery said. “We are not talking grand design here. It’s just to get us off the launch pad, and let’s not look at a gift horse in the mouth. It was going to take City money to do this, but someone stepped up. Yes, it’s on public property. There’s a trade-off here. Whether it’s our money that pays for it, or their money, we get the benefit from it happening here. So we are not talking about depth of pools or timing or all of that. We’ll worry about in-the-weeds stuff later.” ER