ShoDeen ‘sells’ Mill Creek pool for $1 to park district

BLACKBERRY TOWNSHIP – The Mill Creek Pool officially became a facility of the Geneva Park District after a real estate closing last month in which the district paid ShoDeen Inc. $1, park officials said.

ShoDeen, a Geneva development and real estate company, built the Mill Creek subdivision.

The transaction included the five-lane, 25-yard lap pool, clubhouse, bathhouse, concession, parking and kiddie pool, said Park District Executive Director Sheavoun Lambillotte said.

The pool and amenities are valued at $800,000, Lambillotte said, and is a welcome new asset to the park district.

The property is nearly 3.1 acres, including parking, clubhouse, concession, pump room and pool chemical rooms as well as storage.

The clubhouse, at nearly 4,000 square feet including a kitchen, will be available to rent for private parties, she said.

“It’s a really, really generous asset for them to turn it over to us,” Lambillotte said. “It was really a desirable transaction for the park district.”

Discussions began last winter as ShoDeen representatives approached the park district regarding taking over the daily operations and management of the pool, which it did June 7, she said.

The additional pool turned out to be a boon to district residents who were on wait lists for lap swim and other programs scheduled at Sunset Pool, which is at 710 Western Ave., Lambillotte said.

Managing the Mill Creek pool gave the district an opportunity to offer lap swim at 7 a.m. for Sunset’s lap swimmers who were on a wait list. With ownership, the district can continue to have more open swim time at Sunset and more programming at Mill Creek, she said.

“This really opened up aquatic opportunities we were never able to provide in the past,” Lambillotte said.

“We put it in the summer brochure that we would have swim lessons there in the morning and evening, too, because there’s no evening time for swim lessons [at Sunset], and working parents were out of luck before.”

Sunset Pool is programmed from 6 to 10:30 a.m. without a break, she said.

“We only have lap swim for an hour in the midday. It’s very inconvenient and cramped,” Lambillotte said.

“The swim team practices from 6 to 10:30 a.m., swim lessons overlap from 8 to 11 a.m. and then there’s lap swim, exercise walking, water aerobics and toddler swim, then the pool opens at noon,” she said.

Mill Creek Pool will be open through Aug. 24. Sunset Pool will be open through Labor Day, Sept. 1, officials said.