In August 2024, Mayor Albio Sires told The Jersey Journal on NJ.com that he hoped "the shovels will be in the ground on the center in a few months." Two years later, the West New York recreation center on Madison Street is still waiting on a construction contract. The town canceled its first round of bidding on September 25, 2026, posted a rebid notice on September 29, and took the new bids on October 30.
That rebid matters because the date now comes from a contract. The bid documents give a fixed number of days to finish, a deadline to award, and a start trigger. Do the math on those three and you get the earliest date the building could plausibly open.
What's planned for the corner of 58th and Madison
In December 2025, the Board of Commissioners described the project as a 60,000-square-foot Municipal Recreation Center "with a swimming pool, gymnasium, fitness areas, and multipurpose community spaces." The 2024 plan reported by Hudson County View went further and listed these features:
- An indoor competitive pool
- A multi-purpose court striped for basketball and volleyball
- An indoor soccer field
- Pickleball courts
The October 2026 rebid papers add details the renderings never showed. The contractor Q&A addendum calls for a rooftop terrace on adjustable pedestals with 24-by-24-inch concrete pavers. It also specifies a green roof of six-inch vegetated modules, with "plants (as selected by owner later)." The structural drawings in the same package show a pool surge tank and a concrete pool structure.
The building finishes a recreation stretch the town has been assembling for years. The Jersey Journal reported in 2024 that the town spent $4 million renovating Miller Stadium in 2019 and $4.3 million upgrading Miller Park in 2023. With the new center, the three facilities would cover 6.2 acres from Jefferson to Madison Streets between 57th and 59th. The center itself goes on the police parking lot east of Miller Stadium, plus three Madison Street parcels at 5715, 5717 and 5801.
Why the town has gone without one for so long
West New York's last recreation center stood at 57th Street and Broadway. Sires described it to the Jersey Journal as a former ice rink with a low ceiling, wood beams everywhere and a hole in the roof. A middle school replaced it, and since that school opened in 2004 it has also housed the recreation department's indoor programs.
That arrangement helps explain one of the more concrete steps the town has taken. On December 17, 2025, the Board of Commissioners approved Resolution R25-347, a shared services agreement with the West New York Board of Education. The district pays $5 million toward construction and gets to use the facility for 30 years. The resolution lists the uses as athletic practices, sporting events, after-school programs and community events, and it set January 15, 2026 as the payment date. In 2024, Sires had said the pool was meant to serve the school swim teams.
So the new building flips the old setup. Town recreation programs have spent two decades inside a school building. Now the schools will be guests in a town building.
The paper trail, in order
Every step since early 2025 left a public document. Taken in order, they show where the project actually is.
| Date | Document | What it did |
|---|---|---|
| March 26, 2025 | Ordinance #3/25 | Appropriated $5,557,550 for Madison Street land acquisition, demolition, remediation, and planning, design and permitting |
| December 17, 2025 | Resolution R25-347 | Approved the Board of Education's $5 million contribution for 30 years of use |
| July 2026 | Site-prep notice for bid | Sought demolition and asbestos abatement at 5715, 5717 and 5801 Madison Street, to finish within 90 calendar days of notice to proceed |
| August 14, 2026 | First construction notice for bid | Set a September 22 bid opening, later moved to September 29 |
| September 25, 2026 | Same notice | Marked canceled |
| September 29, 2026 | Construction rebid notice | Set October 30 at 2:00 p.m. as the new bid deadline |
The full text of Ordinance #3/25 is short and worth reading on its own. Its stated purposes are buying the land and getting the project ready to build, which matches where things stand now. The canceled first notice is still on the town site, with "THIS BID HAS BEEN CANCELED ON SEPTEMBER 25" printed above the original text.
Where the clock actually starts
The rebid addendum answers the question every resident has, though it's tucked into a contractor's question. One bidder pointed out that the documents gave two durations, "510 working days" in one place and "600 calendar days" in another, and asked which one governs. The town's answer was: "Contract time is 600 calendar days. Contract time commences at the date of formal Notice-to-Proceed. Bid award will be made within 60 days of bid opening."
Those three terms are enough to build the calendar:
- Bids opened October 30, 2026.
- Under the 60-day rule, the award comes by about December 29, 2026.
- The 600 days start when the town issues a formal notice to proceed, which follows the award.
- If that notice went out in the second week of November 2026, 600 calendar days would end in early July 2028.
- If the award comes at the end of the 60-day window and the notice follows right away, 600 days ends around August 20, 2028.
That end point is substantial completion, the contract milestone. An opening date for the pool still has to account for fit-out and programming after construction wraps. On the contract's own terms, the earliest realistic finish for the Madison Street center is summer 2028, almost four years after the 2024 hope of shovels within a few months.
The 2024 coverage also carried a $35 million price tag and a funding mix Sires described at the time: $5 million each from the town and the school district, plus federal and state money and a public-private partnership tied to air rights over planned parking decks at 58th and Madison and at 66th Street and Park Avenue. Those were 2024 figures, and of that package only the school district's $5 million has a 2025 resolution behind it. The construction price will come from whatever bid the town accepts.
The same blocks, in use right now
The rec center's neighbors are already open. Miller Park, at 5800 Jackson Street, hosted the town's Trunk or Treat on October 30. That was the same afternoon the construction bids came due a block away. The Ragamuffin Parade lined up at Town Hall, 428 60th Street, at 4:30 p.m. and walked to the park. According to the 2024 Jersey Journal piece, the park's upgrade included basketball courts and a splash pad.
Up on the Palisades, the recreation upgrade that has actually been finished is at Donnelly Park, on Boulevard East at 60th Street. Hudson TV reported in January 2026 that the playground reopened with new safety surfacing, a large jungle gym with a slide, new swings and a spinning seat. A state grant paid for the work. The dog park next door was renovated at the same time and split into separate areas for large and small dogs.
For swimmers, pickleball players and parents waiting on indoor court time, the date to watch is the notice to proceed. The 600-day count starts the day the town issues it.
If you live near Madison Street or Miller Park and want to talk through how a long-running project nearby fits into your own plans, Staci Manoukian knows these blocks and is glad to walk through it with you. Get your instant home valuation to start the conversation.
