By Tara Fischer

Staff Writer

(Aug. 14, 2025) A proposed community center in Berlin could take the steep price of $35 million to get off the ground.

This week, Daniele Haley of Haley Architecture presented a community center feasibility study conducted by the firm, which revealed the proposed space, incorporating each and every resident wish, would be a $30 million-plus endeavor with the town hiring 15 new employees to run it.

Haley maintains the study is a “snapshot” of what a community center in the Town of Berlin could look like. The proposed amenities are a wish list and the end product would likely be scaled down.

“This is everything we would really want if we could have everything,” she said. “Then we put pencil to paper and start designing and get actual numbers. That’s the schematic and design. This is a roadmap of what you want.”

Included in what Berlin residents and officials “really want” at the community center is a recreational pool to hold high school competitive swim meets, lessons, and water aerobics classes, a multipurpose gymnasium for major public events and indoor sports, a functional fitness room for group fitness classes, an indoor walking track, a flexible health services office for physicals, vision, and hearing exams, a historical display, a small video viewing room, rooms for special events, a technology lab, a community/demonstration kitchen, Head Start program classrooms, and Head Start support spaces, kitchen, and offices.

Outdoor areas for the center could include athletic fields, a walking trail, a community garden, an outdoor classroom, a playground, and patios and gathering spaces.

The feasibility study’s current plan, which includes all desired services, envisions a community space of approximately 45,000 square feet and a construction cost of up to $35 million. The price tag would not end with just the build-out. Noted in Haley Architecture’s evaluation are the ongoing operational expenses that the community center would incur.

The center would be open year-round, with proposed hours of 7 a.m. to 7 p.m., Monday through Friday, and 8 a.m. to 8 p.m., Saturday and Sunday. To ensure daily operations, approximately 15 staff members must be hired, including facility managers, front desk workers, program coordinators, maintenance, a medical assistant, and aquatics staff. Expected annual operational expenses, accounting for personnel, utilities such as water and sewer, electricity, office supplies, and computers, as well as capital improvements, amount to roughly $1.5 million, adjusted for 2027’s projected inflation rate.

To make the daunting cost more digestible, Haley reviewed possible revenue streams. Money-making options to help subsidize the center include membership dues and daily admission rates for non-Berlin residents, vending and concessions, donations, partnerships, grant funding, and facility rentals for special occasions such as birthday parties and fitness classes. These measures could generate around $600,000 per year, to be reinvested in the center’s operating costs.

Haley notes that the high end of the building’s price tag is upwards of $35 million for 45,000 square feet, while the lower end could be closer to $21 million for 37,000 square feet. She said that the design phase could reveal duplicates of space, like if the Berlin library is already meeting a service planned for the center. In this case, the structure’s size and price could be scaled down.

If the project had to be phased out for funding constraints, Haley said that space for the Head Start program would be a priority, as would a community room, a historical exhibit, and front offices. The recreational areas and swimming pool could come later.

Next steps in the push for a community center are contracting preliminary design services, completing site work, and developing a list of potential funders. Berlin Mayor Zack Tyndall said that programs like the town’s recent street sign auction, which raised over $10,000, and additional community-backed efforts are a start in leveraging other possible financial sources.

“Community-driven fundraisers show we have skin in the game,” Tyndall said. “People like to hear that the residents are chipping in. We just gotta think strategically. Certainly, a capital request from the state is something we would be seeking. We are going to pull every lever we can.”

Part of the efforts to pay for the center includes funds from Worcester County. This week, the Berlin Town Council approved the submission of an application for the Worcester County Reinvestment and Repair Grant Program in the amount of $250,000. If awarded, the finances will be gifted to the town out of a $1 million cannabis sale revenue pot.

Worcester County Commissioner Diana Purnell was present at the Berlin meeting when the grant application was approved for submission and expressed her support of the municipality’s community center effort. The grand application would be funded by cannabis distribution revenue.

“When I found out this was going to happen, I wanted to make sure because we were looking at Berlin, Snow Hill, and Pocomoke. We wanted to make sure those towns got the biggest portion of these funds,” she said. “…We need to make sure this money, whatever is spent for, is lasting.”

A community center has been a long-held dream of Berlin officials and residents. That wish was pushed further to fruition over the past few years, particularly when four parcels of property on Flower Street were combined to be the site of the new space through a partnership between the Town of Berlin, the Berlin Community Improvement Association (BCIA), SHOREUP! Inc., and the Worcester County Commissioners.