MOUNT DORA, Fla. – After years of planning, the city of Mount Dora marked the grand opening Saturday of the new Nathaniel Bell Community Resource and Recreation Center.
Located on Lincoln Avenue, the approximately 31,000-square-foot Mount Dora recreation center features a full-size gymnasium, classrooms, technology lab, meeting rooms, kitchen, child watch services and dedicated areas for before- and after-school programming.
Mount Dora Parks and Recreation Director Troy Shonk said the project has been in the works for roughly four or five years.
“So it really started about four or five years ago when we started the planning for the facility,” Shonk said. “Just being here through the year this was built has been amazing.”
City officials said the Nathaniel Bell Community Resource and Recreation Center was built to offer more than recreational activities. The facility is also intended to link residents with educational opportunities, services and other vital community resources.
Community organizations will be able to use areas within the building to deliver services to local residents.
Center supervisor Tela Williams said residents played a role in shaping the plans for the new facility, with city staff seeking direct feedback from the community.
“We went into the community, literally. We asked them, ‘What is it that you guys need?’” Williams said.
A key focus, she said, was providing children and teens with a safe place to go once the school day ends.
For Williams, that goal carries personal meaning. She grew up in Orlando and spent time at recreation centers, which she remembers as places where she could access things that were not always available at home.
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“Just going into a recreation center as a kid provided me the opportunities as little as just having Wi-Fi that I didn’t have at home, or sometimes just a snack after school that I couldn’t get at home,” Williams said.
She said she hopes the new Mount Dora center can provide that same kind of support.
The building is named for Nathaniel Bell, a longtime educator, veteran, entrepreneur and former Mount Dora City Council member.
The city says Bell advocated decades ago for a recreation complex along Lincoln Avenue.
The center held a soft opening earlier this week before Saturday’s grand opening celebration.
Williams said more than 500 people had already registered for memberships by Saturday.
“We ran out of cards,” she said.
Membership is free, and the city says people do not have to live in Mount Dora to sign up.
Additional programs and events are expected to roll out in the coming months.
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