Fairfax to Take Bids for City's $5 Million Community Center

Fairfax officials will soon seek bidders to build a community center on Old Lee Highway, and the city has decided not to place the center in popular Van Dyck Park or spend any additional municipal funds on top of the $5 million that was donated to create it.

The Stacy C. Sherwood Community Center will be in front of the city's new police station but not obscure it. The center will border the south property line of the police lot, facing Van Dyck Park and backing up to the Joseph Willard Health Center run by Fairfax County, said Michael McCarty, city parks and recreation director.

The city had tried for decades to build a community center. It wasn't until Geraldine Sherwood, Stacy Sherwood's widow, donated $5 million with the expressed wish that it be used for a community center that the city finally had something to work with.

The donation, which Mayor Robert F. Lederer called "an unbelievable gift," was made in January 2008. The original plan was to build the center in Van Dyck Park and relocate the playgrounds, ball courts and picnic areas elsewhere in the park. Those popular features would have had to close during construction.

But residents weren't happy about that prospect. McCarty said city officials decided to move the center just south, to where John C. Wood Elementary School once stood.

The city considered buildings of different sizes and at different costs, looking at how many floors and how much square feet could be built for $5 million, for $7.1 million and $10.5 million if additional money was available. But no more money was available, so Fairfax is planning to build a one-story, 14,300-square-foot structure for about $5.3 million. McCarty said the extra $300,000 will come from interest on Sherwood's initial donation.

About 12,000 square feet will be usable within the center, McCarty said, with limited office space and a basement for storage and mechanical functions. He described the building as "primarily a cultural arts center," focused on performance and rehearsal space for community groups, as well as space for children's activities, preschool classes and rental to groups. A 5,000-square-foot performance space will have retractable walls that can divide it in half.

The center's exterior will match the brick facade of the nearby police station, McCarty said. A parking lot in front of the center will have about 70 spaces, he said. A large oak tree in front of the police station will have to come down, city officials said at a work session in March.

The center is being designed by Hughes Group Architects of Sterling. McCarty said the city will seek bids from contractors beginning in August, plans to conclude the bidding by October and have groundbreaking in November or December.

Fairfax plans to have the center open by December 2010, a few months later than originally envisioned. The delay resulted from gathering public input, McCarty said, "and to make sure we made the right decisions."

The center's namesake, Stacy Sherwood, was a Fairfax native and a City Council member who helped engineer the land purchases and planning that led to the establishment of George Mason University. Sherwood, who died in 2002, served on the city's Board of Zoning Appeals for 20 years.