Building History and Use
Central Park has been the civic heart of Woodbury since it opened in 2002. Located at 8595 Central Park Place in one of Minnesota’s fastest-growing cities, the facility draws multicultural, multigenerational visitors year-round through a unique combination of recreational, cultural, and community resources provided by the City of Woodbury and its partners, including Washington County, the Woodbury school district, and the YMCA. At its peak, the facility attracted hundreds of thousands of visitors annually.
After more than two decades of continuous use, the building’s systems and spaces had reached the point where significant updates were required to keep Central Park competitive, accessible, and efficient for the next generation of users. The City of Woodbury began evaluating the facility’s future in 2014. Following a decade of community outreach, user surveys, market studies, and city council workshops, the Woodbury City Council approved a $41 million renovation contract in January 2024.
Construction began in spring 2024 with Kraus-Anderson as construction manager and HGA Architects leading design. The renovated facility features:
- An enclosed amphitheater
- A new 12,000-square-foot multipurpose space for up to 350 people
- An expanded and updated Lookout Ridge Indoor Playground
- Enlarged public gathering areas
- New art installations and space for rotating public art
- ADA accessibility improvements throughout
Central Park celebrated its grand reopening on November 2, 2025.
Why Geothermal?
Sustainability was established as a core focus of the renovation from the beginning. The project was designed to comply with Minnesota’s B3 Guidelines, which set a defined benchmark that the design team was responsible for meeting.
The renovation integrated a Darcy groundwater geothermal system alongside rooftop solar and other energy efficiency initiatives to reduce the facility’s environmental impact and long-term operating costs. For a publicly funded community facility of this scale, long-term operational savings are a direct benefit to the City of Woodbury and its residents, where lower energy costs mean more resources available for programming, maintenance, and community services.
Woodbury had an existing familiarity with geothermal technology, having installed closed-loop systems in city facilities including City Hall and the Bielenberg Sports Center in previous years. The Darcy groundwater-enabled approach brought a significantly more compact well configuration to the Central Park project, delivering high thermal capacity from just three wells rather than the much larger borefield a conventional closed-loop system would have required on the constrained urban site.
Design and Construction
The three-well Darcy geothermal system was installed during the active construction period running from spring 2024 through the facility’s reopening in fall 2025. The wells are integrated with the building’s central mechanical plant, providing heating and cooling across the full 62,708-square-foot, three-story facility including the new multipurpose addition and the renovated existing spaces.
Kraus-Anderson, which had prior experience coordinating Darcy geothermal installations on the Winona Area Public Schools projects, served as construction manager throughout the renovation. HGA Architects, who have collaborated on multiple Darcy projects including the Paradise Commons building at Lake Waconia Regional Park, led the architectural design.
A Community Hub Built for the Next 20 Years
The Central Park renovation reflects how a city thinks about public infrastructure when it is truly invested in its community’s long-term wellbeing. A geothermal system that reduces operating costs, a solar array that generates clean energy, and a building envelope upgraded for durability and efficiency are all investments that compound in value over time, freeing up city resources and reducing environmental impact year after year.
