Big Mike’s Aquatic Center — featuring the deepest swimming pool in the state — is now open in Virginia Beach following a multimillion-dollar expansion.
The 9,000-square-foot aquatic and dive center, built by veteran-owned general contractor Axis Global Enterprises, features an in-ground dive training pool with depths to 15 ½ feet and about 120,000 gallons of water — six times the size of the center’s original pool.
Ross Vierra, president of Axis Global, said the project went swimmingly other than a long delay in the delivery of the dehumidification systems. Initially scheduled for 12 weeks, it took twice as long for valves to arrive from overseas and the completed unit to be delivered.
Vierra, who took scuba diving lessons from Big Mike at 15 years old and then became an advanced open water dive instructor at the center in his 20s after serving in the Navy, said the next phase of the project is a renovation of the dive retail facility.
“The retail store is open, but it will be going into the aquatic center for a temporary period while the renovation of the new retail center is underway,” Vierra said.
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