Clearwater's Long Center pool will welcome swimmers back Friday, July 31, at 3 p.m., ending a 17-month closure for the largest renovation in the facility's 36-year history.

The city is throwing a free welcome-back pool party to mark the occasion, according to the city's reopening announcement. The event at 1501 N. Belcher Road will include snow cones, giveaways, behind-the-scenes tours of the upgraded natatorium, resource tables from local community organizations, and a mermaid demonstration.

What $17.3 million bought

The project replaced the building's original single-pane glass windows with an insulated glass curtain wall rated for hurricane-force winds and large missile impact, according to the city's project page. Workers also repaired corroded structural steel framing, installed a new reflective roof with a 25-kilowatt rooftop solar array, added a modern HVAC and dehumidification system, and replaced pool water-treatment equipment.

The old HVAC system couldn't handle the heat and moisture of the indoor pool environment, which caused the steel corrosion that forced the renovation.

The $17.3 million price tag covers design, construction, and furnishings. Clearwater is funding it with $5 million from Penny for Pinellas sales-tax revenue and $12.5 million from the General Fund. A value engineering exercise cut more than $1 million by eliminating pool deck resurfacing, gutter drain replacement, and a saltwater pool option.

A long time coming

City Council approved Wannemacher Jensen Architects for design services on August 3, 2023, and authorized construction documents on March 7, 2024. Creative Contractors, a Clearwater-based firm led by CEO and president Joshua Bomstein, oversaw the build.

"This facility is heavily used," Bomstein told the St. Pete Catalyst in September 2025, while construction was underway. "It is one of the largest indoor pools in the area and it really has not had a lot of attention, from a building standpoint, since it opened."

The Long Center opened in 1990 and is one of the few indoor, climate-controlled Olympic-sized competitive pools in Florida. The city took over operations from the Long Center Foundation in 2003. A smaller renovation took place in 2017, but the natatorium had never undergone a full structural overhaul until this project.

Three-time Olympic swimming champion Brooke Bennett, who works at the complex as development manager for Clearwater for Youth Pinellas, told the Catalyst in September 2025 that she had seen the pool since the day it opened. She said poor air quality in the old building sometimes meant swimmers couldn't perform at their best during races.

During the closure

The fitness center, gymnasium, Aging Well Center, and other Long Center programming stayed open throughout the 17-month construction period, which began Tuesday, February 18, 2025. Morningside and Ross Norton pools offered extended lap-swim hours seven days a week for displaced passholders, according to the city's pool closure page.

The reopening party is free and open to the public. The city has not yet published the pool's regular operating hours for after July 31.