Frequently Asked Questions

The demand for instructional, recreational, and competition swimming in the region around and including Boerne has outgrown the existing and accessible swimming venues. Southern Kendall County is one of the fastest-growing areas in Texas and deserves a full-service, all-weather facility to serve the unmet needs of the region.

Most of the founding board members and advisors are all involved in one way or another with Boerne Blaze Special Olympics and its highly decorated swimming program and Boerne residents.

Yes. We currently have a board and advisory council development plan in motion to add expertise in several areas strategic to our mission. If you are interested, please send us a message through our Contact page.

We have every intention of building Boerne Aquaplex debt-free and operating it as a financially self-sustainable business, but we also have a strong purpose of service to the region around and including Boerne that we felt was better served as a nonprofit corporation. We hope that people who want to support our mission also will enjoy the opportunity for their donations to be tax-deductible.

You'd have to ask the City and the YMCA why they don't have it in their plans. We see the demand now and growing significantly in the next 10-20 years and felt that if it was going to get done and done right that we would need to do it.

We have every indication that we'll enjoy strong community support and operate successfully but like any 501(c)(3) nonprofit we would abide by IRS regulation and dissolve the corporation and transfer its assets into a 501(c)(3) nonprofit with a related mission.

We are collaborating with another Boerne-based nonprofit, LTO Ventures (www.ltoventures.org) who is providing their consulting and project management services pro bono. LTO Ventures is developing a live/work/play intentional community for adults with intellectual or developmental disabilities (IDD) in Kendall County and we hope to co-locate the Boerne Aquaplex with their Community Inclusion Center and residential community. We also are partnered with Boerne Blaze Special Olympics. Our Advisors include the aquatics director at the Memorial Athletic Club and Aquatics Center in Houston.

Our goal is to open in 2027, but is subject to successful completion of our capital campaign, acquisition of land, planning and zoning and governmental approvals, and availability of materials and labor.

We are conducting a comprehensive competitive analysis and gap and needs analysis of the region including Northern and western San Antonio plus an in-depth feasibility study. Using this research and our own wish list, we will develop a well supported design program for the Center.

We did not include diving boards, classrooms, fitness room, outdoor pool, or outdoor splash pad.

We expect the Boerne Aquaplex to provide a wide range of swimming instruction, recreational and event options, host many competitions, and be the home of Boerne Blaze Special Olympics.

We plan to serve residents and visitors of all ages and abilities primarily from an eight-county region around Boerne that includes Kendall, Bexar, Bandera, Blanco, Comal, Gillespie, Kerr, and Medina counties

Ask us again a year after we've been open. We are optimistic that the Boerne Aquaplex will attract the interest of a wide range of groups and individuals. We expect that our bigger challenge will be managing demand versus cultivating it.

We won't be able to serve individuals with infectious diseases or anyone who violates our Code of Conduct.

Boerne Aquaplex will be developed in Boerne or southern Kendall County. The exact location will be established once land has been acquired through donation or purchase.

We anticipate that the cost to build it and get it ready to open for business will be approximately $11.57 million.

Funding for the estimated $10-12 million project will be sourced as donations and grants received through a capital campaign to commence in late 2023 or early 2024. It is not anticipated that the project will utilize any government funding or commercial debt financing other than construction financing, and it is our goal to complete the construction and fund startup costs debt-free.

We will operate it with staff we hire and lots of volunteers.

Operations of the Boerne Aquaplex will be funded and sustained through revenues from a diversified mix of: recreational memberships; group and individual swimming instructional programs; group and individual safety certification courses; pool rentals for club and school teams; masters swim programs; non-competitive swim teams; competition hosting; therapy and fitness classes; concession, gear, and equipment retail sales; and, private party and event rentals. Any fundraising conducted after the Boerne Aquaplex has opened will be for supporting scholarships, future capital expenditures, and an endowment.

The biggest difference is that our pools will be in an all-weather year-round facility with a swim spa specifically for toddler and youth classes, locker rooms, nurse’s station, and concession stand.

The biggest difference will be that Boerne Aquaplex will have two regulation length and depth pools for swim classes, training, competition, and fitness uses in addition to a swim spa specifically for classes for toddlers and youth. The other schools have one small pool each primarily for toddler and youth classes.

The Omega Retreat Center on the campus of the Benedictine Sisters on Highland Avenue in Boerne.

The Sisters have been extraordinarily generous and Boerne Blaze looks forward to a continued use of their campus for practices, but their pool is not regulation length and no longer big enough to accommodate the growth of the Boerne Blaze swimming program.

The current and future unmet demand for instructional, recreational, and competition swimming in the region around and including Boerne has outgrown the existing and accessible swimming venues. The region comprised of the City of Boerne, southern Kendall County, northwestern Bexar County, and Bandera, Comal, Kerr, Gillespie, and Medina counties is one of the fastest-growing in Texas and the rest of the country. Boerne alone has more than doubled in population in the last 10 years and the regional growth is accelerating with the expansion of Interstate 10 between San Antonio and Boerne.

We conducted a comprehensive competitive analysis and gap and needs analysis of the region including Northern and western San Antonio plus an in-depth feasibility study. We also studied other similar-sized aquatic centers in Texas and around the U.S. to understand how they sized the demand for their facilities.