At 9 a.m. Wednesday, the South Hall Community Center closed its doors for good.

Only county employees will enter over the next few days, moving supplies and equipment to make the transition into the new Mulberry Creek Community Center, which will open Nov. 14.

The Mulberry Creek center will replace the South Hall center, which was sold to Blackshear Place Baptist Church. The county leased the center from the church during the construction of the new facility.

Facility Manager Marci Summer said the staff at the South Hall center isn’t sad about leaving their old home.

“We’ve got too many things ahead of us to look behind,” Summer said.

Summer said the new facility is much larger and will meet the needs of the growing South Hall population.

“We’ve just outgrown this (South Hall) facility,” Summer said. “The new one is so nice and the layout is so user friendly.”

Assistant Hall County Administrator Phil Sutton said the Mulberry Creek center is 41,769 square feet and cost $3.9 million.

“It’s under budget right now,” Sutton said. “It’s really gone quite smoothly.”

The Mulberry Creek center was approved with SPLOST IV in 1999. It took a long time to find the right piece of land for the facility, and the funds were assembled from SPLOST, impact fees and the sale of the South Hall center.

“It had multiple funding sources we had to put together. It was very complicated,” Sutton said.

Summer said the Mulberry Creek center will continue the same programs and services that were available at the South Hall center, in addition to new offerings.

The new community center will be open more hours and will be open on Sundays. It will also have more classes, a community meeting space and fitness equipment.

“We also will have a workout area,” Summer said. “That will be the only thing that will be membership based.”

New classes, including spinning and aerobics, will be added to the schedule along with additional ballet and hip hop classes.

“We just need people to come out and enjoy it,” Summer said.