A partnership with a health-care organization looks like the key to building an affordable recreation center in the New Lenox Park District.
Park commissioners this week hired the West Chicago-based IBIS Group to organize a recreation center partnership between the New Lenox Park District and a health-care organization, then voted to ask for taxpayer funding in a November referendum. The Park District will pay IBIS $9,500.
The health-care partnership will “soften the burden on taxpayers and bring them services we can’t do alone,” Park Board President Bob McKenna said.
Consultants from the IBIS Group are working with a health-care organization and should be able to determine how much funding the Park District must contribute within the next 30 days, Park Director Greg Lewis said Wednesday.
Initial indications are favorable, Lewis said, but the health-care organization cannot be identified until an agreement is reached.
IBIS Group President Donna Jarmusz said partnerships between park districts and health-care organizations offer affordability and value, “conserving and pooling community resources.”
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Fitness activities serve both health and recreational goals, Jarmusz said.
The target market is the mass of aging Baby Boomers, one of whom turns 50 every 10 seconds, she said.
Senior Vice President H. Daniel Druck said a joint venture under way in Chicago Heights serves as an example. A 64,500-square-foot fitness center on the Prairie State College Campus in Chicago Heights is the result of a partnership of St. James Hospital and Health Care Center, the Chicago Heights Park District and the college, Druck said.
Druck said IBIS works on the entire project, “everything to take it to the grand opening.” The company earns 4 to 6 percent of the project cost, he said.
Park officials hope the partnership arrangement will break the impasse between the recognized need for more recreational space for a rapidly growing population and taxpayer reluctance to spend big bucks.
Since a referendum proposal seeking financing for a proposed $11 million recreation center was defeated in 1999, park officials have been looking for a lower-cost alternative.