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Jefferson Parish pursues $70M natatorium at Hope Haven. How will parish get the money? 6%
By Lara Nicholson24%
8/2/2026, 2:00:00 AM
Keywords: Hardwall
BS Summary: This article contains 6 faulty reasoning types, including Negativity Bias, Anchoring Bias, and Confirmation Bias, with Optimism Bias as the most egregious example at 16.8% saturation with 165 hits. Analysis detected 349 faulty-reasoning hits from 981 analyzed words, generating a BS Score of 17.1% and a BS Rank of 6% (23,882 of 25,280 articles). This article is better (less manipulative) than 94.50% of the article peer group.
Summertime means a lot of travel for Head Coach Kier Braendel.
That’s when long course season takes place, where her swimmers at the South Louisiana Swim Team compete in Olympic-sized swimming pools from March until July in races that often require more endurance and fewer turns.
While the swimmers are able to practice at Crescent City Christian School in Metairie, the meets are always at least an hour away and they sometimes lack seating, leaving parents to set up folding chairs along the pool’s hot and humid edges for competitions lasting up to four days.
“Our whole March through July is not here,” Braendel said.
A new facility proposed by Jefferson Parish officials hopes to change that, with a plan to build a Regional Aquatic Center for competitive and casual swimmers alike in Marrero’s Hope Haven.
Jefferson Parish officials are seeking private donors to help close the funding gap on a $70 million natatorium with an Olympic-sized swimming pool that will serve as the centerpiece of a larger plan to transform the former orphanage into a health and fitness hub for the West Bank.
The parish bought the 15-acre property and its nine buildings from the Archdiocese of New Orleans last year using $3.8 million in state and parish funds, after leasing the property since 2018.
The property was offloaded by the archdiocese to raise funds for a bankruptcy settlement following hundreds of lawsuits claiming abuse against young children, including at the former orphanage.
Officials have said they intend to breathe new life into the area, and plan to include a granite monument to memorialize survivors of abuse at Hope Haven.
Since leasing the property, the parish has sought to preserve Hope Haven’s century-old, Spanish Renaissance-style buildings and convert them into a public, multi-use complex for recreation and entertainment.
Inside the natatorium
The proposed 72,675-square-foot natatorium would be built in the Feingold Mechanical Arts Building, close to the Archbishop Shaw High School’s football field.
The facility would feature three separate, indoor pools.
One would be an Olympic-sized competition pool with eight lanes.
Another pool would have six lanes, and be available for team practice.
The third would be open to public lap swimming, fitness classes and swimming lessons.
The facility will also have locker rooms and on-site concessions, according to site plans.
Surrounding the pools will be 1,500 stadium-style seats for spectators.
Braendel, who also serves on the board for Louisiana Swimming, said the seats would be “huge” for parents.
“Parents can walk in and out without disrupting the flow, air-controlled seating, better viewing experience,” Braendel said.
“We have no arena like that in Louisiana.”
Jefferson Parish Council Member Deano Bonano, who represents the area and whose children all swam competitively, said the aquatic center would be the most advanced in the region and would create an opportunity to attract high-level swim competitions that have few places to go in the state.
That means more families traveling to Jefferson Parish to eat at its restaurants, stay in its hotels and spend more money.
Such is the goal of several other Jefferson Parish projects aimed at capitalizing on the “sports tourism” industry, like a $45 million youth sports complex that opened near Westwego earlier this year, or a Metairie pickleball complex that now hosts tournaments.
The Regional Aquatic Center's website lists the YMCA of Greater New Orleans as the site’s future operator.
The only other pool in Jefferson Parish’s recreation system is at Johnny Jacobs Playground in Marrero.
Across the New Orleans area, other facilities with Olympic-sized pools include the LSUNO Aquatic Center at the Lakefront Arena and Tulane University’s Reily Student Recreation Center for members.
Bonano allocated $8.5 million toward the project from discretionary funds derived from the West Jefferson Medical Center lease with LCMC Health, which is reserved for health-related projects for West Bank council members.
The state Legislature also earmarked $15 million for the natatorium, on top of another $8.1 million allocated for the preservation and restoration of the Hope Haven campus.
Bonano said the New Orleans Saints have committed another $5 million to the natatorium.
Those funds cover only 41% of the project’s estimated cost, which has significantly increased in recent years due to rising labor and material costs, according to Bonano.
In 2023, he had estimated that similar projects in other cities cost between $12 and $28 million.
Bonano said they are preparing to “test the waters” with private donors in partnership with the nonprofit Jefferson Community Foundation over the coming months.
In July, the parish council approved a resolution supporting the nonprofit’s private fundraising for the project.
Festivals, event centers and more
Alongside the natatorium, parish and state officials plan to construct festival grounds with a stage and convert the former Saenger Gymnasium into the Les Bonano Event Center, named after Deano Bonano’s father, a longtime boxing promoter and trainer.
The event center will maintain the original façade, but the rest of the building will be demolished for new construction.
Officials are also in the process of stabilizing the historic main building, which will go up for lease along with another building once complete.
After that, the parish will put requests for proposals out to lease the buildings, which could be used for offices, senior living facilities, apartments or other uses, Bonano said.
“Our goal is to turn Hope Haven into a center for health and fitness on the West Bank,” Bonano said in an interview last week.
“Hopefully it’ll be a crown jewel for the West Bank.
Not just an economic stimulus, but a place on the West Bank to walk, see concerts, etc.”
The parish has already constructed a walking trail, fitness area, children’s playground and restrooms on the campus for public use.
Once completed, Sen.
Patrick Connick, R-Marrero, said it “could be our City Park on the West Bank.”
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