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Community center taking shape

Caledonia — The long-waited Cal Community Center is scheduled to be completed by the end of 2024.

Walls and ceilings are taking shape, providing an outline for where offices and locker rooms will eventually exist. Walking through the shower areas offers a view of the new leisure and competition pools, where construction crew members will pour the pools’ concrete.  

“This project is fun,” senior superintendent Adam Koorndyk said about working on the community center. “The building’s precast concrete is really cool; we have over 100-foot-long beams that take a lot of coordination to install.” 

The project incorporates the district’s signature color, purple, in the flooring, carpeting and the windows in the walls facing Kraft Road. The windows will look transparent from the inside looking out and appear purple from the outside. 

The district broke ground for the Cal Community Center — so named after a community vote of more than 180 submissions — in October 2021, in partnership with the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids. 

Funded by the May 2020 passage of the district’s $88.09 million bond proposal and a $61 million supplemental bond approved this past May, the 47,000-square-foot community center will be open to the public and feature a swimming pool and multi-use gymnasium.

The project’s construction company is Rockford Construction and the architects for the project are c2ae and Stantec.

Photos by Dianne Carroll Burdick

Construction workers install overhead hydronics heating and cooling systems inside the Cal Community Center
Construction workers install overhead hydronics heating and cooling systems inside the Cal Community Center
The new Cal Community Center sits across the street from Duncan Lake Middle School
The new Cal Community Center sits across the street from Duncan Lake Middle School
Precast concrete beams make up the structure of the Cal Community Center
Precast concrete beams make up the structure of the Cal Community Center
Workers prepare the leisure and competition pool areas to pour concrete
Workers prepare the leisure and competition pool areas to pour concrete
New purple bench press equipment sits inside Caledonia High School’s weight room
New purple bench press equipment sits inside Caledonia High School’s weight room
A look inside the newly renovated weight room at Caledonia High School
A look inside the newly renovated weight room at Caledonia High School
The Caledonia High School football team will get to play on a new turf field
The Caledonia High School football team will get to play on a new turf field (courtesy)

Read more from Caledonia: 
District weighs options for community center projects
Voters approve bond proposals, millage renewals in six Kent ISD districts

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Alexis Stark
Alexis Stark
Alexis Stark is a reporter covering Byron Center, Caledonia, Godfrey-Lee, Kenowa Hills and Thornapple Kellogg. She grew up in metro Detroit and her journalism journey brought her west to Grand Rapids via Michigan State University where she covered features and campus news for The State News. She also co-authored three 100-question guides to increase understanding and awareness of various human identities, through the MSU School of Journalism. Following graduation, she worked as a beat reporter for The Ann Arbor News, covering stories on education, community, prison arts and poetry, before finding her calling in education reporting and landing at SNN. Alexis is also the author of a poetry chapbook, “Learning to Sleep in the Middle of the Bed.”

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