Sault YMCA hopes to relocate downtown

A number of major steps would have to be taken first, but Sault Ste. Marie YMCA management would like to eventually relocate Y facilities, currently located at 253 McNabb Street, to a proposed new development in the city's downtown.

A local group, the Canal Village Development Corporation, wants to purchase city land between Station Mall and Mill Square to build a new multipurpose development.

The Canal Village Development  Project, to be formally presented to city council Monday, would include new YMCA facilities (along with a retail and restaurant component and a residential component with condominiums and apartments).

"There's always the question with an aging facility, 'should we stay or should we go?'" said Kim Caruso, Sault Ste. Marie YMCA CEO.

"We did a major renovation only a few years ago and unfortunately we didn't get the funding to build a new facility, we got the funding to renovate our old facility."

"The problem is our facility is old, and if we take that into consideration with this new opportunity that is presenting itself, with the information that our downtown could really use a recreational facility, because of statistics around children and inactivity and obesity, it's a very strong and compelling story for us to consider moving down there," Caruso said.

The McNabb property would be sold after the YMCA moved downtown.

"Our first step would be market research…first we have to make sure it's something the community wants and needs and what our members want."

"There's no point in considering moving locations if we don't have the membership to support that facility and that move.  If there isn't the support for us to move, then we won't," Caruso said.

"Our members and their voices are very important to us, and certainly there will be opportunities for our current members to have a say, to express their concerns or their pleasure…they've got lots of time to talk to us about it." 

Then, of course, there is the question of how would a new YMCA be paid for ?

"Certainly we would be looking for support from infrastructure funding from the governments, the city, from the community at large, from donors and supporters, we would have to do a significant capital campaign unlike what the Y has done in the past," Caruso said.

The cost for a new YMCA would depend on the number of members the organization could expect, which would dictate the size of the new facility, Caruso said.

Caruso is optimistic a new Y downtown would have a fair number of members.

"As a charity we don't turn people away so we do provide approximately 30 percent of our membership with financial assistance with their membership…we know in the downtown core transportation is an issue, so I would expect a number of people from that area who might be challenged financially would have the opportunity to access the YMCA (downtown) which at this point don't have access."

"I would also expect that with a number of businesses downtown that having the Y down there would be attractive for a number of employees that don't access the Y right now," Caruso said.