Penner family donation ensures that facility will remain gymnasium space
A competition gymnasium built by the Penner family 14 years ago on the west edge of Aurora has been sold to a community-based organization committed to maintaining its use as a recreational facility.
Kirk Penner announced in December that Penner Athletic Courts was available for sale, noting that the family’s goal was to find a like-minded buyer. It was announced this week that the Bremer Center is now the new owner, with terms of the deal reflecting a long-term commitment by both parties to offer gymnasium space for community use.
“Our family is very thankful that the Bremer Center and the other foundations and individuals in Aurora made the investment in the community, because that’s what it is,” Penner said. “This is a $2.9 million facility that you couldn’t build for $5 million today. We got together as a family and decided to gift $1.9 million, then the Bremer Center and the other foundations and individuals in the community donated $1 million. So it really is an investment in the community.”
Jennie Kuehner, speaking on behalf of the Bremer Center Board, expressed her gratitude to the Penner family for its willingness to keep the facility available for community use.
“The Penner family made a generous donation to the community just building the facility, making it available for community use and running it,” Kuehner said of a 22,000 sq. ft. structure on Highway 34 which opened in 2010. “I think they just reached a point in time where they felt that it was time for them to not be running it on a day-to-day basis and were generously willing to sell it to the community at a price that was well below its appraised value. I mean, to me that’s a donation that the Penner family made to the community. It really is.”
Kuehner said the Bremer Center Board of Directors discussed the opportunity and decided to move forward, thanks in large part to the Penner family’s cooperation.
“As a Bremer Center board, we felt like we would be a great fit, given that we already have experience in doing some recreational programming in the community,” she said. “We have a gym, so we thought if we could combine those two functions that there would be some synergy that we could gain by owning and managing that facility.”
Penner shared that timing was critical in the way the deal was ultimately done.
“We are under time constraints,” he explained. “We were weeks away from having to put it on the market contractually by an agreement the Penner family had to just sell it outright. It could have become a warehouse, so that’s why we’re so thankful for what everybody did to step up so the PAC will stay what it has been. It’s going to be here a long, long time as a recreational facility.”
Kuehner confirmed that numerous community donors made financial commitments to help close the deal, which officially closed in early September, though fundraising is not yet complete.
“We definitely have some committed donors,” she said. “We are still in the process of raising funds and we did it this way based on the way the timing worked from the Penner family side of things. We’ve raised 80 percent of the funds, but we’re still going to be doing some fundraising.”
Principal donors to date include $400,000 from the Wortman Family Trust, $200,000 from the Farr Foundation, $100,000 from the Hamilton Community Foundation and $50,000 each from Hamilton Telecommunications and Keith Heuermann.
Penner reflected on how the PAC has been utilized in past years, noting that he expects the Bremer Center board to take its use to another level.
“We have hundreds and hundreds of kids go through the facility every month, whether it’s the school, travel basketball or the South Central Volleyball Club, which has made that its home,” he said. “I mean, we’ve had some phenomenal athletes come through that facility from every division of college, from NAIA to Division I athletes.”
Penner also wanted to publicly recognize Scott Warner, a long-time employee at Penner Patient Care, for his valuable contributions to the PAC.
“He’s done a terrific job and he certainly deserves credit for that,” Penner said.
“The reason we built the PAC is that we were short on gym space in this town, and you could probably argue that we need a little bit more gym space,” he continued. “It’s just the way things are growing, but it really was a competition facility where we wanted people to work on their games. I believe you’re going to see a lot of nice things in there that we just weren’t willing to do because it was volleyball and basketball for the Penner family. There’s just so much more that you can do with the PAC than we did as a Penner family.”
Future use
Asked about potential plans for expanding the PAC’s use, Kuehner and Bremer Center Executive Director Sami Vincent had this to say.
“I think we would plan to operate the building for the benefit of Hamilton County,” Kuehner said. “We do have some primary users and we would like to continue with that, and then also expand with some community opportunities, like youth camps and clinics, that sort of thing.
“We will look at different adult recreational opportunities as well,” she continued. “Pickleball would be primarily adults, though it could also be for kids. We could also run an adult co-ed volleyball league over at the PAC and perhaps a men’s basketball league. We’re also open to what the community is interested in doing, so we’re definitely open to suggestion.”
“The school is definitely a priority,” Vincent added. “They have priority right after school until 6 p.m. every day and then we are working with the clubs that are in there and navigating what the scheduling can look like for the youth in the community.”
Currently, the Bremer Center can be booked up to a year in advance and discussions have begun on how to book the PAC for various groups, considering the possible need to convert the gym space by putting up or taking down volleyball nets and setting up courts accordingly.
“There will be a learning curve just navigating how to utilize the new facilities,” Vincent said. “I just want to add that we’re really thankful to the Penner family and the community for the support to keep it as a community asset in town.”
One other change made with this transition is an expansion of the Bremer Center Board.
“The Bremer Center had a five-person board before and we have added four new members,” Kuehner said. “We tried to get some people on the board that would have a particular interest in youth sports, specifically, and hopefully they will be able to give us some ideas on managing the PAC with some new thoughts about things we could add to what’s being offered that people in the community might be excited about.”