The Waterford Recreation Center at 5640 Williams Lake Road closed for good at the end of 2025, according to the township. The township had planned to close it in January 2026, but "catastrophic mechanical issues" moved the date up, as the Detroit Free Press reported on November 29, 2025. The building that replaces it won't open until early 2028. That means the township is less than halfway through the time it will go without a dedicated recreation building.
The new building on Cooley Lake Road is coming together from Waterford's own wish list. Even the soil being dug up there is part of the plan. Until it opens, a small set of places carries the township's recreation programs, and one of them set an attendance record this fall.
The interim period runs more than two years
Here are the key dates, set out in order:
| Date | Milestone |
|---|---|
| November 2024 | Voters approve a 21-year, $36.41 million bond for the project |
| Late 2025 | Waterford Recreation Center closes permanently |
| July 2026 through December 2027 | Scheduled student center construction |
| August 26, 2026 | Groundbreaking at the former OCC Highland Lakes campus |
| Fall 2027 | OCC's Highland Lakes campus expected to fully close |
| Early 2028 | Projected opening of the Waterford Community Center |
| Through October 2028 | Scheduled site work, commissioning and project closeout |
The township's project FAQ says all operations will move into the new building in early 2028. The July 2026 project dashboard shows outdoor site work going through September 2028, with closeout finishing in October 2028. So the building may open while parts of the 51-acre site are still being finished.
The dashboard puts the total budget at $33.31 million, with $27.195 million of that for construction and $2.54 million held as contingency. Neumann/Smith is the architect and engineer, and Frank Rewold & Sons is the construction manager. Township trustees chose both firms by unanimous votes in April 2025, according to The Oakland Press.
What's happening at 7350 Cooley Lake Road right now
The new Waterford Community Center will reuse part of Oakland Community College's former Highland Lakes campus. It isn't a cleared lot. PEA Group, the civil engineering firm on the project, says the plan renovates the existing student center and physical education building, demolishes three other buildings, and adds a new gymnasium, an enclosed outdoor exercise area, four pickleball courts, two basketball courts and accessible parking.
The October 8, 2026 minutes of the Hess-Hathaway Park Advisory Committee give the most recent public update. The PE building has been torn down to make room for a gym extension that will connect to the main building. Selective demolition inside the Student Center is underway. Demolition of High Oaks Hall was scheduled to finish by the end of October, and foundation work was expected to start before winter. Parks and Recreation Director Alison Swanson attends on-site meetings every two weeks.
The campus is still open while this happens, so the property has some rules for now. The southern part of the campus is a secured construction zone and is closed to the public, including the softball-field green space, the amphitheater and the tennis courts. OCC students and faculty get to Levinson Hall through the Cooley Lake Road–Marylestone Drive entrance, and the Hospital Road entrance stays open.
The soil is staying on site, and that's on purpose
Soil from the excavation won't be hauled away. It will stay on the property and be shaped into a sledding hill.
According to the minutes, a sledding hill was something community members asked for in the township's last two Parks and Recreation Master Plans. The same report says the project can deliver other amenities requested in those plans over the past ten years. Here's how the finished site compares with that list:
- Sledding hill: built from the project's own excavated soil
- Dog park: included in the outdoor plan
- Pickleball: both indoor play and outdoor courts
- Gymnasium, table tennis and fitness classes: planned inside the roughly 56,628-square-foot building
- Basketball courts, softball field, courtyard, amphitheater and outdoor restrooms: planned outside
A splash pad isn't in the current project. The minutes say the department is looking at grants and possible sponsors to add one after the building opens. Trails are planned to link the new site to Hess-Hathaway Park, so the two will work together.
At the August groundbreaking, Swanson described the project to WXYZ this way: "We aren't simply building a facility for today. We're building the future of Waterford Township." Supervisor Anthony Bartolotta told the station the building would serve "Waterford, our neighbors, and beyond."
Leggett Campus and Hess-Hathaway are handling the load for now
Programs didn't stop when the Williams Lake Road building closed. The township says everything moved to the Leggett Campus at 3621 Pontiac Lake Road and to a few other sites around Waterford. Leggett will stay the base for programs, services and staff until the new center opens.
The fall 2026 reports in the October minutes show how widely programs are spread out now:
- Fall basketball started October 10 at Pierce Middle School with 106 children signed up.
- Fall soccer drew more than 350 families with players ages 4 to 15 and finished October 18 with a Pink Out game.
- Fall classes included Little Chefs, Tumbling, Beginner Ballet, Martial Arts, Kangoo Jump Fitness, Volleyball, Youth Pickleball, Clogging and Yoga.
- The Senior Expo took place October 16 at the Leggett Campus.
Hess-Hathaway Park at 825 S. Williams Lake Road has carried much of the season's events. Harvest Happening on October 4 set an attendance record. Staff counted 1,059 vehicles, not including vendors, and estimated about 4,236 attendees, beating the previous record of 3,500. That's about 21% more people than the old record, at a park with a working farm, two Teeswater sheep that were sheared at the event, and two farm cats named OB and Half Pint.
The park is also getting work done this winter. The township approved a Hess-Hathaway bathroom project funded half by the Hess Trust and half by the Parks and Recreation budget. Construction was set to start after Election Day, with completion expected by April 2027.
The Williams Lake Road building itself is on its way out of township hands. The township FAQ said it was scheduled to be listed for sale in mid-2026. Funding rules require the sale proceeds to go to a comparable recreation facility, and the township plans to put that money into the new community center.
Dates for the rest of this season
The next Hess-Hathaway Park Advisory Committee meeting, set for November 12 at the Leggett Campus, comes before this post publishes. These dates are still ahead:
- Saturday, November 21, 3 to 6 p.m.: Holiday Hoopla and Tree Lighting at Waterford Town Hall.
- Through winter: The Drayton Plains Nature Center Interpretive Building is closed for the season, per the October director's report.
- January 2027: Returning gardeners can register for community garden plots.
- By April 2027: Expected completion of the Hess-Hathaway bathroom project.
The tree lighting at Town Hall comes shortly before the one-year mark of the Recreation Center's closing. The building where that soil is being piled for a sledding hill is due to open in early 2028.
If you live near Cooley Lake Road, Williams Lake Road or the Leggett Campus and want to talk about what the new community center and the sale of the old building could mean for your home, Emily Ford can walk you through it. Schedule your free consultation.
