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AURORA, Colo. (KDVR) — Aurora is mid-construction on a new recreation center, which the city said is fully funded by marijuana taxes.

The new Aurora Southeast Recreation Center at 25400 E. Alexander Dr. is fully funded by marijuana taxes and is set to open in early 2023. (Credit: City of Aurora)

The city held a beam topping-out ceremony at the $41.9 million Aurora Southeast Recreation Center on Friday, Nov. 5.

“The planners and architects really listened to the community to create a design compatible with the natural setting, that takes advantage of the mountain views, and offers the activities that are so popular with families in our neighborhoods,” Aurora Mayor Pro Tempore Françoise Bergan said in a press release.

Bergan represents Ward VI, where the rec center is located. It’s near the Aurora Reservoir at 25400 E. Alexander Dr., southeast of E-470 and East Quincy Avenue.

The city said the 76,000-square foot center broke ground in February and is expected to be finished in early 2023.

It will be the second new recreation center the city has funded with marijuana taxes. Marijuana tax money funded Aurora’s first new recreation center in nearly four decades, the Central Recreation Center, in 2019.

What will be in the Aurora Southeast Recreation Center?

The new rec center will include:

  • an indoor pool with waterslide
  • pool party rooms
  • a fitness area that includes a 1,000-square-foot fitness turf zone
  • group exercise rooms
  • multi-purpose community rooms
  • a gymnasium
  • a “figure 8” running track with various elevations
  • a more than 20,000-square-foot indoor fieldhouse

An Indianapolis team of artists called Project One Studio will also create an installation throughout the center.