For decades, Holland's youth basketball leagues, open gyms and rec classes have borrowed space in school gyms. That arrangement is ending. Local schools can no longer rent or lend the city space, City Manager Keith Van Beek told WGVU, and without a building of its own the recreation department would have to start cutting programs.
The answer is a city recreation center at Smallenburg Park, off Fairbanks Avenue near Bouws Pool and Ray & Sue Smith Stadium. Site work began after Labor Day under a $1.1 million contract with NexGen. The city plans to award the building contract Nov. 4 and start foundation work Nov. 16.
What's inside
The building is about 83,000 square feet, with four full-size basketball courts that can be set up for other sports and multi-use rooms for programs beyond athletics. Lakewood Construction is the general contractor and Integrated Architecture designed it. Assistant City Manager Matt Van Dyken, who leads the project for the city, expects it to take 12 to 15 months, which points to an opening in late 2027.
The city has not yet announced membership prices, hours or the full list of programs that will move in.
What changes at the park
Construction removes a playground, a pavilion and some trees. The skate park stays where it is and remains open throughout construction, Van Dyken said.
How it's paid for
City Council voted unanimously in August to borrow up to $22 million through bonds. Financing also includes a $5 million gift from the estate of Jim Heeringa, a Holland native who died in 2021. The city set the gift aside for a new recreation center when it announced it in 2022. Heeringa had given $2 million toward the Civic Center renovation in 2016. The final construction price will be set when council approves the building contract.
Not the township center
Holland's new building is separate from the Holland Charter Township Community Center, which opened in July 2025 in the former Younkers at the Shops at WestShore.
