This Pierce County park is closed for months while its neighbor gets $17 million makeover
Sprinker Recreation Center is adding some bling to its outdoor campus as it gets a $17 million makeover that’s turning it from just a sports complex into a community park and improved sports complex.
“It is the the local gem of the Parkland Spanaway community,” said Pierce County Parks director Roxanne Miles. “It’s been a long time coming to give the residents what they deserve.”
Players and fans need not worry their fields are going away.
“Our intent is to preserve the fact that it is a regional sports complex and has a unique ability to offer as many ball fields and sport tournament experiences in addition to recreational leagues,” Miles said.
In June, maybe May, a new set of amenities will emerge from the piles of dirt and massed construction equipment currently working at Military Road South and C Street South. When complete, new artificial turf fields, a playground, spray park, event field, picnic shelters, outdoor gym and more will surround the building that houses the community ice skating rink.
A new trail will link Sprinker with Pacific Lutheran University.
Meanwhile, an adjacent forested park is closed while the improvement project is under construction. The closure has garnered some criticism from users but park officials say it’s necessary while new access trails are built.
Bresemann Forest
Bresemann Forest, a 70-acre park with hiking trails and creeks, closed in March, according to county spokesperson Andriana Fletcher. That’s when construction began on the Sprinker Outdoor Improvement Project. The forest shares a border with Sprinker and access is gained from the complex’s parking lot.
The closure brought some criticism from residents who didn’t understand it was needed.
Andrea Clay, the regional manager for Spanaway area parks, said because Bresemann abuts the Sprinker construction area, there’s no way to keep people from leaving the forest and entering a potentially hazardous work zone. But, she left open the possibility of an earlier opening.
The full parking lot should be open in March. At that time, Pierce County Parks will look at the possibility of moving fences to allow safe access.
“It’s like a moving target,” she said of construction schedules.
The forest contains a section of Spanaway Creek which flows from Spanaway Lake and into Morey Creek.
Sprinker’s new features
When the outdoor improvement project is complete, it will contain:
- A regional spray park open Memorial Day through Labor Day.
A nature-based playground accessible for kids with all abilities.
- A Futsal Court where 5 on 5 soccer teams can compete or practice. While Futsal is sometimes described as indoor soccer, this court will be outdoors.
- An adult outdoor fitness center which will allow parents to exercise while kids play at the nearby playground and spray park.
- Two refurbished basketball courts.
- An event lawn repurposed from two current ball fields.
- Two current ball fields carpeted with synthetic turf. The fields can double as a soccer, lacrosse and football field.
- One large and two smaller picnic shelters.
- A renovated park entry including a plaza for events.
Parkland Community Trail
The new Parkland Community Trail will travel just over a mile between Sprinker and the southern edge of the PLU campus, Miles said. It will use existing roadways for the bulk of its length between the two. Some roads on the route need to widened to allow shared use, she said.
Construction has yet to start north of the park because additional easements and right-of-ways needed acquiring, Miles said.
The route will travel mostly along 8th Avenue Court South and Yakima Avenue South. Along the way, it will connect to five schools and two other parks.
The project should go to bid this year, Miles said.
Closures and openings
Sprinker’s skate park closed in September but will reopen in January. Meanwhile, the SPIRE climbing rock is closed until the project is completed.
The 74,000-square-foot Sprinker building itself is not part of the improvement project.
In the past, facility users could enter the parking lot from C Street South. That entrance is now permanently closed and two entrances will be available on Military Road South.
The new parking lot will have better disabled access and EV charging stations, Clay said. It will also have dozens of trees.
Phase 2
A second phase of the project will see the completion of four ball fields with natural grass. Those will extend further north into what is now an open field and trees. The current fields, which are half a century old, are poorly irrigated and drain poorly, Miles said.
Design for Phase 2 of the project won’t begin until 2025 at the earliest and only if grant funding can be secured, Miles said.
Phase 2’s budget is around $12 million with construction possibly starting in 2026, Miles said.
When it’s finished, the new improved Sprinker Recreation Center, Bresseman Forest, Spanaway Park, Lake Spanaway Golf Course and Parkland Community Trail will be a one-stop recreation, nature and community complex, Miles said.
“It’s really going to be fun to have these new amenities for our local residents to come and use,” she said.
