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Two Omaha businessmen and scuba enthusiasts see Omaha’s swelling interest in competitive swimming as an opportunity for an aquatic center that eventually could have an Olympic-size pool and diving facilities.
Dean Hollis, a retired ConAgra Foods executive, and Mark Roberts, a retired former owner of two copy and imaging companies, are building a scuba and swim center to open next May or June on two acres at 120th and I Streets.
They bought four more acres at the same site to build additional buildings later — one featuring a competitive swimming pool and another possibly with springboard and platform diving facilities.
The vision is for it to become an “aqua/sports campus,” Hollis said.
While the second and third phases are just in the planning stages, Hollis and Roberts hope the Olympic-size pool building could be completed in time for the June 2012 start of the U.S. Olympic Swim Trials at the Qwest Center Omaha.
Last year was a big one for swimming and specifically for swimming in Omaha.
When Omaha was host for the 2008 Olympic Swim Trials, it set an attendance record by drawing 160,003 fans over eight days. Later that summer, Michael Phelps went on to win eight gold medals, the most in U.S. Olympic history.
Omaha-based Mutual of Omaha also is the national sponsor of USA Swimming, the nonprofit group that oversees the country’s swim team, and Mutual also sponsors individual U.S. Olympic swimmers.
Tom Beck, head coach of Greater Omaha Aquatics, called GOAL, a year-round U.S.A. Swimming Club, and swim coach at Creighton Prep, said the current number of facilities can’t meet the surge of local interest in competitive swimming. Membership in his club alone is up 40 percent since the Swim Trials, he said.
“I’m struggling to be able to accommodate everyone who is asking to join our club. I have people on waiting lists. I’ve had to get creative with practice times,” Beck said. “I definitely see facilities in Omaha being kind of a limiting factor right now for how much it (swimming) can grow. ... If you add an Olympic-size pool, that will dedicate a lot of its time to competitive swimmers, I think that will have a big impact.”
Hollis and Roberts said they already had identified a need for a scuba facility and were working on those plans when the local tie to the Olympics and Phelps’ historic wins helped broaden their vision.
“Mark and I are businessmen, and the fundamentals of business are supply and demand,” Hollis said. “There is a tremendous demand for swimming, and there is a real lack of facilities to satisfy that demand.”
The metro area has other scuba equipment shops and instructors, but none has an indoor training facility, Hollis said.
DiVentures will have a custom-designed pool with three areas: a shallow end ranging in depth from 3½ feet to 5 feet, to be used for water aerobics, birthday parties or physical therapy; a section with three 25-yard-long lap lanes ranging from 5 to 14 feet deep; and 14-foot deep end for scuba and snorkel classes.
The facility, designed by Alley Poyner Macchietto Architecture, also will have classroom space and a retail area with clothing, equipment and accessories.
The retail space also will include an area with coffee, televisions, newspapers, computers, and couches and chairs overlooking the swimming area.
In addition to services like scuba equipment maintenance and repair, the facility will offer certification and classes, in topic areas from drowning prevention and lifeguarding to underwater photography and aquatic ecology.
“We want it to be a place where people are just comfortable spending the day,” Hollis said. “The whole facility is designed for people to have fun.”
The company also is serious about its commitment to water safety, he said. At the recent groundbreaking, DiVentures donated $50,000 to the Omaha Fire Department for its Water Rescue Team to buy a boat.
“That’s consistent with our focus on water safety and our commitment to give back to the community,” Hollis said.
DiVentures also will coordinate group diving- or swimming-oriented trips, and will assist people in organizing individualized vacations, Hollis said.
Hollis and Roberts opened DiVentures in a temporary facility at 2424 S. 120th St. in May, offering scuba and swim equipment and services.
They broke ground Sept. 9 on the new facility.
He declined to disclose the exact cost of constructing the 12,000-square-foot facility, other than saying it will cost “a couple of million dollars.”
The 49-year-old Hollis said that while he and Roberts, 51, are retired, they were too young to entirely put their business expertise to rest. They decided to combine their passion for diving and business. After finding the property at 120th and I Streets, their vision expanded, Hollis said.
He called it a “real sweet spot” demographically, on a major thoroughfare and easily accessible to Interstate 80.
At the northwest corner of 120th and I Streets, the property sits just south of the new Ultimate Baseball Academy, a 55,000-square-foot, multimillion-dollar indoor baseball/softball training facility.
“We thought the location was just ideal.”
Contact the writer:
444-1183, christine.laue@owh.com
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