An $8 million aquatics center is going to Chesterfield County instead of Richmond, dealing another blow to the city's plans for a sports entertainment complex on North Boulevard.

The Poseidon Swimming Club is joining forces with the Richmond Kickers Youth Soccer Club on a 34-acre sports complex that Chesterfield just rezoned at Chippenham Parkway and Iron Bridge Road. The aquatics center will take up to 1.5 acres of the site at the end of Ridgedale Parkway at Chippenham Crossing.

The swim club's board voted Friday to direct its foundation to pursue a development deal for the site, which is the third chosen in the organization's long search for a permanent home and a facility that is capable of hosting state and national swimming competitions.

The decision reverses Poseidon's year-old plan to move the proposed center from Chesterfield to Richmond, where the city had envisioned it as part of the development of a new baseball stadium for the Richmond Braves, a tennis complex for Virginia Commonwealth University, and a mixed-use entertainment district on public land around The Diamond.

The Braves announced last week that they are leaving Richmond after this season for a new stadium in the Atlanta suburbs. Poseidon Foundation President Mary C. Doswell gave the same reasons for giving up on the Boulevard project as the Braves -- delay and uncertainty.

"It just would take too much time," she said yesterday.

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The Chesterfield Board of Supervisors this month approved a rezoning for the sports complex, setting the stage for construction to begin as early as June and the project to be complete by the middle of next year.

In contrast, Doswell said Richmond's consultant, The Staubach Co., estimated the development of the Boulevard property would take three to five years.

The swimming center is not shown on one development scenario proposed by the city in a recent invitation to developers. On another city scenario, however, the center is shown as part of a complex on property now occupied by the Virginia Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control on Hermitage Road behind The Diamond.

"We're not quite sure what would come back from the developer," Doswell said.

Linwood Norman, press secretary for Richmond Mayor L. Douglas Wilder, issued a statement noting that The Staubach Co. had not recommended an aquatics complex for the project's first phase.

"We look forward to continuing to work with Ms. Doswell and her organization to provide these recreational opportunities for children at the location right at the city line," the statement said. "We appreciate that she has been keeping us posted, as she has done for the past several months."

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Poseidon and the Kickers began talking in November, partly through Robert S. Ukrop, president of Ukrop's Super Markets, whose son, Rob, is president of the Kickers board of directors.

The elder Ukrop had tried unsuccessfully to build a natatorium for swimming next to The Diamond in the mid-1990s, but in a bond referendum, Henrico County voters rejected a proposal to help pay for it.

The Kickers already use three fields on 12.5 acres next to the Ukrop's store at Chippenham Crossing. The proposed new complex will be operated by Poseidon and the Kickers on that property and an adjacent 22 acres under contract for purchase. Ukrop estimated the purchase price at about $1 million.

The soccer complex will have six fields, instead of the seven planned originally. Organizers hope to have lighting for them, as well as a mixture of artificial and natural turf.

The aquatics center will feature a 50-meter Olympic pool and a 25-yard warm-water pool that organizers say will allow them to hold state, regional and possibly national swimming competitions. It will include seating for 850 to 900 people. "It will be a major venue for swimming," Doswell said.

The estimated cost of the project has risen from $7.5 million to $8 million, but Poseidon hopes to help pay for it with the sale of 9 acres it owns on Midlothian Turnpike, where the center was proposed originally.

Contact Michael Martz at (804) 649-6964 or mmartz@timesdispatch.com.