A new YMCA for Hendersonville? YMCA of WNC looking to replace old building

As the YMCA of WNC considers its options for the future of its aging Hendersonville facility, the decision to replace or update the building will depend largely on community support.

The Hendersonville Family YMCA serves about 6,000 members, YMCA of Western North Carolina Chief Operating Officer Tim Blenco told Hendersonville City Council members in March, adding that the facility at 810 6th Ave. W. was built in 1965 and sits on 7.25 acres.

The Hendersonville YMCA joined the YMCA of Western North Carolina in 2011. The YMCA of WNC’s board of directors’ most recent strategic plan says new buildings are needed in Hendersonville and downtown Asheville.

“The community deserves a better Y,” Blenco said. “Right now, I kinda feel like I’m living in a house that, you know, the whole neighborhood’s been fixed up except for us, and we realize that, and we want to do better.”

The YMCA of WNC hired a company to look at the Hendersonville facility’s location and the population it serves. The company’s analysis found that the YMCA is in a great location for building and for the market, noting that both the city and county are growing.

The YMCA has a strong market penetration - nine percent of households within a 20-minute drive are members, the study showed, and with a better facility, the YMCA could potentially serve 15 percent of households. The current building is 31,500 square feet, but at least 45,000 square feet would be needed to grow, the study found. And while the location, property and market penetration are strong, the building is in a declining state.

“2021 was probably the last good year in that building,” Blenco said. “We are to the point now where if we have another plumbing issue, we just might not have good enough pipes to connect new ones to.”

A capital campaign will need to be launched, and the YMCA has met with legislators to start the process of requesting a state appropriation. They also plan to hire a company to conduct a capital campaign feasibility study to gauge community interest and support.

Building concepts

Blenco shared preliminary concepts with the council of how they could better use the acreage, stressing that they were in the early stages. He described three concepts.

The first concept keeps the most expensive cores of the facility, including the indoor pool and gym with the basketball courts, and builds new square footage for everything else, including the fitness center, as well as an aquatics footprint expansion.

Millions have been invested in the building, Blenco said, but mostly in the one-story portions of the facility, such as the front desk and fitness center areas. This first concept would mean tearing down these areas and building a two-story building at the front and bringing parking closer to the facility.

The YMCA of WNC has also had discussions with Pardee Hospital about including a physical therapy or outpatient surgery component on the property, which could be built on the side of the YMCA close to the tennis courts.

The back 2 acres of the property that were re-purchased after the merger are available for use as well, possibly for workforce housing or a nonprofit, among other ideas.

The second concept would include more new additions to the existing Y, Blenco said. The fitness center would be moved to where the basketball gym is currently, and a new fitness center would be built. This option would cause more disruption during the building process, however, with Blenco saying, “It’s gonna be a nightmare at the Y for about a year and a half.”

The third concept would cause the least amount of disruption but has the highest price tag — building a “brand-new, state-of-the-art facility,” Blenco said, “with a brand-new pool, brand-new basketball gym, and we get the road frontage, because right now we’re so far back, we can’t make that building look sexy as hard as we try; it’s too old.”

A new facility would also provide a nearly 30,000-square-foot building for UNC Health Pardee and potentially Wingate University on the YMCA’s side of the street, along with space to possibly expand the cancer center.

“So there’s a lot of harmony that we could create in kind of the human-service ecosystem right there in that part of Hendersonville,” Blenco said.

Price tags

The first concept would cost a little more than $10.5 million. The second concept would cost about $14.5 million, and the third option for a brand-new facility would come with a price tag of $20 million to $25 million.

The YMCA of WNC has requested $5 million in a state appropriation for a building project and has also teamed up with Donor by Design to do a capital campaign feasibility study, Blenco said. UNC Health Pardee raised $6 million for its cancer center, Blenco reminded the council. The YMCA would need to raise $10 million from the community to fund the third option of a new facility, and the YMCA of WNC has a couple million that could also be used.

To raise more money, the YMCA of WNC could look at land leases and leverage the property, Blenco said, adding that it’s feasible they could get to $25 million or $30 million with only a little bit of sustainable debt.

Next steps

The capital campaign feasibility study must come first, Blenco said, to see if there’s support from the community. The study would be done in April and May, and the results should show the YMCA which concept to aim for. Meanwhile, the YMCA of WNC is asking Hendersonville, Laurel Park and Henderson County to help fund the study, which should cost just under $50,000.

Blenco did not request a specific amount from the city, but City Manager John Connet said council members will consider the request as part of their special appropriations discussions in May.

“We know that we do a lot of great programs in the community and we’re very proud of that work, and we just want to do a better job,” Blenco said.

This article originally appeared on Hendersonville Times-News: A new Hendersonville YMCA? YMCA of WNC makes pitch to City Council