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College of Marin donor gives $8.5M for pool dive tower

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College of Marin donor gives $8.5M for pool dive tower

A record-setting anonymous donation of $8.5 million will allow College of Marin to add a competition-level diving tower at its pool in Novato.

“We are very grateful to the donor for their support of the college and our aquatics program,” David Wain Coon, the college president, said Wednesday. “This is the single largest gift the college will receive — to date — in our nearly 100-year history.”

The college recently advertised a 50-year lease at the dive tower project for bid for a minimum of $8.5 million. A bid opening was scheduled for Tuesday’s meeting of the board of trustees.

The plan changed over the weekend when college officials learned of the gift.

“The bidding process was canceled once the $8.5 million came through as a straight donation to the district,” college spokesperson Nicole Cruz.

The donor was the sole bidder.

The diving project calls for a 30-foot platform and a 40-foot tower.

“I think the nearest schools that have a dive tower at a comparable level are USC, Stanford and Berkeley,” said college trustee Phil Kranenburg. “That’s what I’ve been told.”

Kranenburg said the gift means the college will be able to offer high-level swim and dive meets to the public, raising the school’s profile in the region.

“We are very fortunate that this will provide another catalyst to support community engagement with the college,” he said.

The dive tower is the second major construction gift at the Indian Valley Campus. The Rotary Club of Novato has signed a $5 million, 75-year lease agreement with the college to fund a conference center, also under construction.

The agreement was part of a bequest, according to Chris DeGabriele, president of the club.

“Former Rotary Club of Novato member Bill Jonas and his wife Adele made a bequest to the Novato Rotary Endowment to be used for the purpose of constructing the Bill and Adele Jonas Community Center in Novato,” DeGabriele said in an email. “Jonas was the founder and owner of Roger Wilco supermarkets in Novato, a Rotary Club of Novato member and civic leader.”

The Rotary agreement guarantees the club reserved space for its lunch meetings on Fridays, as well as reservations for one multi-day event and five half-day events a year, he added. The center will also be available for the college and the community.

A lease for the dive tower might have offered similar exclusive rights, but since the $8.5 million has now been changed to be a straight donation, the majority of use time will be available for various groups and people, according to Greg Nelson, assistant superintendent at the college.

Nelson said the first-priority users will be the school’s swim and dive teams, followed by college students and staff. In the remaining time, the site could be rented to outside groups, he said.

The dive tower was not originally part of what started out as a $24.5 million, 19,500-square-foot aquatics and fitness center. Construction began in September 2018, but was delayed by last year’s rainy season and then the pandemic, Nelson said.

In the interim, the dive tower idea surfaced, Cruz said.

Workers remove tarps from a pool under construction at College of Marin’s aquatics center at the Indian Valley campus in Novato, Calif., on Wednesday, Nov. 18, 2020. (Sherry LaVars/Marin Independent Journal)

“An anonymous donor became aware that the district had plans to build an aquatic and fitness center,” she said. “At that time, there was no planned dive tower in the scope of the work, and the donor was interested in discussing the concept and potentially funding that addition to the project.”

Discussions with the donor “began six to eight months ago to determine the feasibility of incorporating the dive tower into the scope of the project,” Cruz added.

According to Nelson, the donor’s name might be revealed at a later date, once the documents are signed.

San Jose-based Blach Construction Co. is the general contractor for the center. Although construction had been targeted for completion over the summer, that was postponed, Nelson said. A new completion date has not yet been set.

Construction on the Jonas center is nearly complete, but the pandemic will likely delay the opening, Nelson said.

Apart from the $8.5 million gift and the $5 million lease, both the aquatic site and the Jonas center are funded by voter-approved Measure B bond funds.

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