Plans are moving forward for a $75 million, roughly 73,000-square-foot aquatics center on the Hope Haven campus in Marrero, the largest component yet in Jefferson Parish’s redevelopment of a historic property it acquired from the Archdiocese of New Orleans. The parish purchased the western portion of the campus for $3.8 million in 2025, clearing the way for the broader project.
The facility as currently designed includes a 50-meter competition pool, a separate warm-up and training pool, and a warm-water pool for swim lessons, rehabilitation, and therapy. Three classrooms are planned for education and workforce programs. The current scope represents a significant expansion over an earlier proposal, which called for a 40,800-square-foot building.
The parish is positioning the center as a sports tourism asset. Competition-standard aquatics facilities draw multi-day regional and national meets, and those events generate the hotel nights, restaurant spending, and ground transportation demand that parish tourism officials have been working to capture on the West Bank, where lodging inventory has historically trailed Metairie and Kenner.
The Greater New Orleans Foundation helped fund the Jefferson Community Foundation’s original master plan for Hope Haven, which established the framework the aquatics center now sits within. The two foundations maintain a longstanding partnership, with Greater New Orleans Foundation providing administrative support and managing Jefferson Community Foundation’s endowment.
Earlier phases have already changed the site. The first round of improvements delivered a walking trail, playground, and outdoor exercise equipment, and work has included stabilizing historic buildings on the campus that could support future uses. Those structures represent the clearest near-term adaptive reuse opportunity on the property once the aquatics facility is underway.
The parish has also committed to establishing a memorial on the property honoring abuse survivors, a condition tied to the site’s history under Archdiocese ownership. For the West Bank, the combined effect is the conversion of a long-underused institutional campus into public recreation infrastructure, with the historic buildings and remaining acreage still to be programmed.
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