By Jon Murray

Denver Post

Cost estimates have ballooned by 25 percent for the Central Denver Recreation Center, and city officials want to tap into recreational marijuana tax proceeds to pay for about half the increase.

The $6.6 million jump in the construction budget is mostly the result of escalating costs in the building industry and the city’s fine-tuning of plans for the rec center with public input, Denver Parks and Recreation Executive Director Lauri Dannemiller told a City Council committee Tuesday morning.

About $1.3 million of the increase is attributed to the cost of giving the rec center a vertical, urban-friendly design for the site at East Colfax Avenue and Josephine Street.

At the same time, Dannemiller and Councilwoman Jeanne Robb said, officials had pared back some of the plans, such as reducing the lap pool from 10 lanes to eight. That’s a change some council members hope to see reversed, perhaps by seeking private donors or selling naming rights for the center, because it could affect the new rec center’s ability to host swim meets.

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