New Performance and Wellness Center coming to Clemson athletics

The Clemson Athletics department announced on Friday that a new Performance and Wellness Center is being built for Clemson’s Olympic sports.

The Clemson Board of Trustees gave Phase 1 approval to the project on Friday.

Estimated cost for the project is $50 million. In addition to the new building, it also includes upgrades to the existing volleyball facilities, renovations to the Jervey Athletic Center and an upgrade for the track and field and cross country programs for their day-to-day operations. 

“A really important project. It will be available for all of our sports, but really affect 18 of our Olympic sports – both men and women. Really important. Big, big project,” Tigers AD Graham Neff told reporters Friday. “Think strength and conditioning, nutrition, sports med, rehab, PT, really for Olympic sports. So we’re going to build it just south of Jervey Gym.”

Most of that area south of Jervey currently consists of a parking lot. It will be replaced by a new 50,000-square-foot facility.

The project cannot get underway until Phase II Board and State approval are given. The hope is that that will occur sometime next winter.

“This calendar year, ‘23, we’ll go through approvals, architects, design, all the development,” Neff said. “Anticipate to break ground later this year – call it Winter of ’23. Basically think ’23 – approvals, design — ’24 construction. So really two years or less is when we want to be in it.”

Part of the improvements coming to Jervey Gym include raising the roof. The gym is not currently regulation height for volleyball. Other improvements include a new locker room, lounge and meeting areas for Clemson’s volleyball program, as well as major improvements to the gameday experience with new access, restrooms and concessions areas. The Track and Field and Cross Country programs, which are also housed in Jervey, would receive significant upgrades to their day-to-day spaces, including locker room.

There was talk of doing a full renovation to Jervey, but ultimately it was decided that completing a new building made more sense.

“It became more bang for the buck to build new,” Neff said. “It’s basically the new Jervey. It’s the extension of those programs for all Olympic sports.”

Separately, Clemson also recently broke ground on a $37 million project that will include practice facilities and operations complex for the Tigers’ two newest sports — women’s lacrosse and women’s gymnastics — as well as improvements to the existing rowing facility. That project also includes a lakefront elite recovery area, which aims to make a drastic difference in student-athlete recovery and mental well-being. That project is slated to be completed in late 2023. 

Here are more renderings for the project announced Friday: