Silverthorne's Rec Center Expansion Matters Most for the Gym It Gives Back
October 15, 2026
October 15, 2026
"Our programming has regularly been full," Steven Herrman, Silverthorne's parks, recreation, open space and trails director, told Summit Daily in July. "People that are trying to get into our programs are aware of that. They're in a kind of silent line, or waitlist."
That silent line is the clearest way to read the addition now going up behind the Silverthorne Recreation Center at 430 Rainbow Drive. The new wing comes to roughly 24,000 square feet. Its biggest effect on the average weekday visit will show up in the rooms that already exist. They have been doing several jobs at once since the building opened, and the expansion is designed to give each of them one job.
The recreation center was built in 1992 and opened in 1994. Herrman describes it as having operated, in effect, as the first phase of a longer plan. The town flagged the need to expand in a 2009 recreation master plan and confirmed that priority again in a 2020 strategic plan.
All that time, the gymnasium has also housed the town's gymnastics program, which includes the competitive Silverthorne Storm team and recreational classes. During construction, the auxiliary gym has been split down the middle. Gymnastics takes one side. The other side handles drop-in sports and fitness classes. Instructors have kept class equipment behind a gate inside the gym, so every weekly class means setting up and tearing down.
The fix the town settled on was to build gymnastics a permanent home of its own. Moving that one program sets off most of the other changes.
The town's expansion page calls the project 24,000 square feet in its text. Its own area table adds up to 24,690. Here is that breakdown, along with what each new space takes over from the existing building.
| New space | Area | What it takes over |
|---|---|---|
| Multi-activity court gym and its three zones | 12,140 SF | Gymnastics, which moves out of the existing gym |
| Two multipurpose rooms | 2,500 SF | Classroom, cooking and toddler programs that compete for current rooms |
| Licensed school-age camp room | 2,370 SF | A program the town has never offered |
| Viewing and lounge area | 1,970 SF | Spectator space for the new gym |
| Weight room expansion | 1,440 SF | Added room across both weight rooms |
| Storage, support and administration | 4,270 SF | Behind-the-scenes space |
The multi-activity court gym is laid out as three areas that can be combined in different ways: a court-sports and overflow gym, a gymnastics, parkour, ninja and aerial silks area, and a trampoline, tumble track and foam pit area, with a spectator lounge alongside. The town has said it plans more open gym time, youth and adult leagues, and gymnastics, silks, parkour, trampoline and tumbling programs in the new space. That describes how the space is meant to be used. It is not a published schedule.
When gymnastics moves into the new wing, the existing gymnasium is freed for more hours of drop-in basketball, volleyball, pickleball and other recreation. That is what Summit Daily reported from town staff in July. Herrman said the auxiliary gym could then take youth recreation and other programs with fewer interruptions. He described the overall mix as "paid programming, included in a membership or drop-in type program, and also just general indoor space."
The two new multipurpose rooms work the same way. The smaller one seats up to 15 for classroom-style programs and meetings. The larger one holds up to 50 and is meant for cooking classes, toddler and leisure classes, and rentals. Town staff said that shift frees the existing aerobics and multipurpose rooms for more fitness and dance classes. They named yoga and Muscle Madness among the programs with room to grow.
The weight rooms are being reconfigured with new equipment as part of the 1,440-square-foot expansion. The expansion page lists 39 stations in Weight Room 1 and 12 in Weight Room 2. Some of the existing space is already back in use. The town's September 9 construction memo reports that new flooring in the circuit area is finished and staff have moved the equipment back.
Kid's Korner, the short-term childcare for ages 6 months to 6 years while parents use the facility, has been running out of the main lobby. It is capped at two hours per child per day. It goes back to its permanent location once construction wraps up.
The new gymnastics space gets its own parent drop-off entrance on the east side of the building, with added street parking facing it. That is according to Kristina Nayden, Silverthorne's communications director. Afternoon practice drop-offs will no longer have to go through the main lobby, which also serves the pool, the weight rooms and Kid's Korner.
The road behind the recreation center that leads to Rainbow Park has stayed closed to the public throughout construction. The town's construction notice says the park can still be reached from Rainbow Drive, from the recreation center's front lot, or from the park lot off Rainbow Drive. That notice was last updated at the end of 2025, so conditions on the ground may have moved ahead of it.
The 2,370-square-foot camp room holds Silverthorne's first town-owned and town-operated licensed childcare program. It was still unnamed in July and now runs as Camp Silverthorne. The program can take up to 45 children ages 5 to 12. The town hired Summit County resident Megan Fisher as licensed programs coordinator. Many of her part-time staff are expected to come from the recreation department's current team.
The town's Camp Silverthorne page sets out the structure:
The camp follows the Summit County School District calendar for breaks and no-school days. Registration is day by day for most programs, and the town lists scholarship funds for any Camp Silverthorne session.
Herrman's September 9 memo to Town Council says the project has entered its final finish phase, with "November 2026 completion still on track." The memo also says the owner contingency is intact despite approved change orders and an added patio. The July progress report from Artaic Group, the project manager, lists Collab Architects as architect and JHL Constructors as contractor. By then, basketball hoops, HVAC ducts, audio and fans were already installed in the new gym. The total project budget is $29 million, and the town says the expansion is paid for by its 8% lodging tax.
A November completion target is a construction forecast. It is not a public opening date. The September memo gives no ribbon-cutting date. It also gives no dates for Silverthorne Storm's move into the new gym, the return of drop-in hours to the existing gym, or the reopening of the indoor track, Weight Room 1, Kid's Korner's original room and the rear Rainbow Park road. The firmest dates on the calendar belong to Camp Silverthorne, which the town's October 1 newsletter says will begin licensed care "this winter."
These are the published dates for the recreation center and the town events closest to it. On registration, the October newsletter lists Camp Silverthorne registration as opening December 1. The camp's own page separates holiday-break enrollment from after-school registration, so the list below follows the camp page.
When we tell the story of a Silverthorne home, it includes everyday details like how far it is to an open court on a January afternoon or which entrance a gymnastics carpool uses. If you are thinking about how your own Silverthorne property fits into that daily routine, Jeff Scroggins & Paige Johnson would welcome the conversation. Work With Us: Schedule a Bespoke Marketing Consultation.