Rifle heard a presentation Wednesday on a feasibility study exploring whether the city should build a fieldhouse or community center, where it could be located, what it might include and what it would cost.

Jordan Lockner, co-owner of Collab Architecture from Windsor, and Chris Kastelic, owner of StudioCKA from Denver, worked with the city of Rifle to complete the fieldhouse feasibility study. 

Rifle is a relatively young community with lots of families with children, multi-generational and with a population of 10,702, and participates in a large range of outdoor and active activities, Kastelic said. 

“There aren’t a lot of service providers in the region, a lot of people in this community are traveling quite a large distance to participate in recreational opportunities,” Kastelic said. 

Lockner talked about engaging the community in the feasibility study, asking for preferences on what they’d like the fieldhouse to have, and participating in community events to engage, like having a build your own fieldhouse with a $20 million budget. 

“What really emerged was some key themes and the strong need for indoor recreation, to support year-round use,” Lockner said. “In Colorado, we have wonderful outdoor use, but limited to the seasonality of that.”

Court sports, aquatics, fitness spaces, hard court and indoor turf programming were on top of the community’s lists. There was also a request for an indoor playground and multi-use rooms for classes or other events.

“We looked at eight or nine different sites for possible construction…and landed on this Metro Park site,” Lockner said. 

The Metro Park site, which would be south of Metro Pool on 16th Street and Railroad Avenue, was the original thought for a possible fieldhouse. 

The preferred concept from the feasibility study includes a turf field, two basketball courts, an indoor pool, and indoor playground on the ground level. A fitness area, fitness track above the courts and turf field, and classrooms and exercise studio would be on the second floor. 

The pool would address recreational use and have a lap lane area. 

“This could be really dialed into the community of users that we expect to use this type of facility versus those that may use a private facility,” Kastelic said. “For instance, water walking on a resistance current might fit into an older user group, whereas group exercise might fit the bill for a different type of fitness amenity.”

Kastelic said they also looked at the possible exterior of the building. 

“We thought it really needed to echo, kind of an extension of downtown, and really preserve that Main Street character,” he said. “It shouldn’t sit buried within a park the way a suburban center may, it should really be transparent so we can see activities within this building.”

Brick, wood and glass seemed to be the main proponents of the proposed building, to act like a living billboard as Kastelic said. 

“It gives it a real good fit to the community, and a really good fit to that existing complex that’s been used by residents for generations,” Kastelic said. “The pool, the skatepark, all come together to create a good recreational environment.”

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Kastelic finished the presentation with costs and what they would look like without an indoor pool and with an indoor pool. 

Without an indoor pool, the cost of the center would be around $30 million, and with an indoor pool would be around $46 million. 

These costs also include nonconstruction costs, including design fees and equipping those amenities. 

Rifle Parks and Recreation DirectorAustin Rickstrew said the process began with the city exploring if they could cover the existing Metro Pool with a structure so that it could possibly be used in colder months without building a fieldhouse. 

“It was eye-opening for staff and we all knew it was going to be expensive,” Rickstrew said. “Lots of brainstorming, we only blew up their plans four or five times. They’d come really prepared to a meeting, and then we’d throw a grenade as soon as they’d start.”

With this presentation complete, Rifle City Council will be looking into next steps on possibly building, with or without the indoor pool, and other cost analysis, like planning to build sooner or later.