
Article from Sunday, January 18, 2025 Fort Lauderdale Sun Sentinel
By Susannah Bryan | sbryan@sunsentinel.com | South Florida Sun Sentinel
UPDATED: January 18, 2025 at 7:04 AM EST
FORT LAUDERDALE — The Aquatic Center’s sky-high dive tower, a breathtaking 101 feet high at its peak, is taller than anything else on the waterfront peninsula home to the International Swimming Hall of Fame.
For now, anyway.
That will change with an upcoming makeover expected to transform the currently closed Swimming Hall of Fame into a landmark destination expected to draw scores of families, locals and tourists.
The project is expected to break ground in late January and open as soon as 2028.
When it’s done, two modern buildings more than 100 feet tall will sit like bookends on either side of the Aquatic Center and its head-turning dive tower at 501 Seabreeze Blvd.
“It’s going to elevate the beach as a destination even more than it already is,” Vice Mayor Steve Glassman told the South Florida Sun Sentinel. “It’s going to be another transformative project on the barrier island and give us amenities we never really had before. It’s really first class.”
The east building will serve as a gateway to the Aquatic Center and feature a streetside cafe and leasable commercial space. The west building overlooking the Intracoastal will include a welcome center, a new International Swimming Hall of Fame museum with interactive exhibits, an aquarium showcasing marine life and a theater designed to engage and entertain visitors.
The makeover, expected to cost more than $218 million, will come with heavy construction noise and plenty of dust starting this spring.
But it’s the vibration that comes with the high-impact force required to drive sheet piles 40 feet into the seabed that has some nearby condo residents worried, they say.
The process, necessary to create a stable foundation for the building, will likely take several months.

Noisy work to begin in March
John Burns, president of the Venetian Condo Association, shared his concerns with the commission during a recent meeting.
“One of our big concerns is the pile driving,” Burns said. “We’ve been through it before with just days and days of vibrations. Some of our residents are really concerned about buildings that are sinking now or buildings that are falling down.”
The developer plans to conduct vibration monitoring while installing sheet piles for the seawall.
The work, known for being noisy, will begin in mid-March and could take as long as seven months.
“We want to get it done as fast as we can,” said Greg Jennings, the project manager with Hensel Phelps Construction. “We certainly recognize it affects the neighbors.”
Mayor Dean Trantalis questioned the timing.
“That’s when Spring Break is starting,” he told the project manager. “The height of our tourist season you guys are going to start driving sheet pilings.”
Most of the construction will take place on weekdays from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m.
The noisiest work won’t begin until 8 a.m.
“There will be heavy equipment on site,” Acting Assistant City Manager Ben Rogers said. “There will be cranes operating. Right now the plan is to operate from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. There will be times when extended hours may be requested. And there may be weekend work.”

Opening day a few years away
Trantalis also worries that the new Ocean Rescue headquarters that will sit right behind the dive tower might take away from the tower’s iconic look.
“I do believe Ocean Rescue is important, but we need to keep in mind how it will interact with the dive tower, which we spent a lot of money on,” he said.
The dive tower was built during a $50 million renovation of the Aquatic Center completed in September 2022. The tower alone cost taxpayers $5.1 million. An observation deck that sits to the north cost another $2.7 million.
The entire Swimming Hall of Fame project will be done in four phases and require at least three years of construction. It might even take four, pushing the opening into 2029, Jennings said.
The project’s first phase involves building a new seawall around the 5-acre peninsula; demolishing the east building; and building a new Ocean Rescue headquarters.
The west building will go up in the second phase; the east building in the third; and water docks and more site work will be done in the fourth phase.
Original plans called for a five-story east building that would stand 108 feet high. The west building was going to have six floors with ceilings close to 20 or 25 feet, bringing the height of the entire structure to 134 feet.

Buildings too tall?
Critics have concerns about the height of the buildings being proposed by the developer, saying they might block views.
Trantalis says he, too, has concerns about building height.
“The renderings keep changing,” he told the Sun Sentinel. “And artists’ conceptions often fail to give you a realistic understanding of how the buildings are going to be placed on the site and how they interact with other buildings.”
His main concern is that the dive tower not be overwhelmed by the buildings around it.
“I see the encroachment of the dive tower happening slowly, little by little,” Trantalis said. “To the point where this now iconic image is going to be obscured by buildings that are going to surround it.”
The original plans for both buildings are now undergoing a redesign, said Mario Caprini, CEO of Capital Group P3 of Florida and a partner in the project with Hensel Phelps.
“We are redesigning the project to accommodate the aquarium,” he told the Sun Sentinel.
The east building will be either three or four stories. And the west building will have eight floors but won’t get any taller, Caprini said. In fact, the design team is working on reducing the height of the building.
Caprini and his team plan to seek commission approval in March for the updated design of the museum building. They also plan to present a proposed redesign of the east building to get public feedback.
Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan