{"id":250065,"date":"2026-04-28T19:29:09","date_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:29:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/250065\/"},"modified":"2026-04-28T19:29:09","modified_gmt":"2026-04-28T19:29:09","slug":"swimming-hall-of-fame-peninsula-gets-new-name-the-water-district","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/250065\/","title":{"rendered":"Swimming Hall of Fame peninsula gets new name: The Water District"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The peninsula that\u2019s home to both the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center now has a catchy new name: The Water District.<\/p>\n<p>The rebranding dovetails with the ongoing $220 million redesign of the Hall of Fame.<\/p>\n<p>The reimagined waterfront destination is <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2026\/03\/04\/fort-lauderdale-new-swimming-hall-of-fame-attraction-to-open-in-late-2028\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">set to open<\/a> in late 2028 at 501 Seabreeze Blvd., also home to the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center and its famous dive tower.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPeople refer to the peninsula as the Hall of Fame pools, ISHOF pools and the Aquatic Center pools,\u201d said Mario Caprini, the developer behind the Hall of Fame project. \u201cThere\u2019s too many names. We decided to rebrand the entire peninsula.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>When the project opens in 2028, visitors will find a marine aquarium built around a 10,000-gallon tank along with a rooftop restaurant and a new Swimming Hall of Fame museum.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou can come to <a href=\"https:\/\/thewaterdistrict.com\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">The Water District<\/a> 15 times in a year and do something different every single time,\u201d Caprini said.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou come for a dive competition, you end up in the aquarium,\u201d Caprini said. \u201cYou grab lunch on the promenade, you stay for dinner on the rooftop. That is what a real destination does. This is what Fort Lauderdale has been waiting for.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>An elevated\u00a0public promenade overlooking the Intracoastal will be open from dawn to dusk.<\/p>\n<p>Interactive screens will adapt educational content to each visitor, making the aquarium equally accessible to a first-grader on a field trip and an international traveler stepping off a cruise ship.<\/p>\n<p>The waterfront destination will also house Frameless, an immersive digital art experience that transforms iconic works from across art history into a fully immersive environment.<\/p>\n<p>The four-phase project is part of a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.sun-sentinel.com\/2025\/11\/08\/fort-lauderdales-swimming-hall-of-fame-project-gets-new-look-city-aims-to-get-better-deal\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">public-private partnership<\/a> between Hall of Fame Partners and the city.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cFort Lauderdale\u2019s relationship with water is its identity,\u201d Mayor Dean Trantalis said. \u201cThe Water District makes that identity permanent. It is a generational investment in our waterfront, our people, and our global standing.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The project, approved by the commission in 2023, is now in its first phase of construction. The buildings revert to city ownership at the end of a 30-year lease.<\/p>\n<p>Susannah Bryan can be reached at sbryan@sunsentinel.com. Follow me on X @Susannah_Bryan<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The peninsula that\u2019s home to both the International Swimming Hall of Fame and the Fort Lauderdale Aquatic Center&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":250066,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[17],"tags":[506,28,249,251,250,114,266,109],"class_list":["post-250065","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-fort-lauderdale","tag-broward-county","tag-florida","tag-fort-lauderdale","tag-fort-lauderdale-headlines","tag-fort-lauderdale-news","tag-latest-headlines","tag-local-news","tag-social"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250065","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=250065"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/250065\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/250066"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=250065"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=250065"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=250065"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}