One year after a fire caused millions of dollars in damage to the Wilmington Family YMCA, the organization’s board of directors approved conceptual plans not just to rebuild the old facility, but to improve upon it.
The plans call for a new aquatics facility and more space for youth programming at the 2710 Market St. location. The facility currently has a six-lane pool and a four-lane pool, but the proposed design replaces the four-lane pool with an eight- to 10-lane pool.
“That will help address one of the needs in our community for more swim lanes,” YMCA president and CEO Dick Jones said Feb. 9, “whether that’s for recreational swimmers or competitive swimmers.”
He hopes the Y can partner with community groups to create the new aquatics facility, he added.
Renovations will also include creating more room for the YMCA’s youth programs.
“We do an awful lot with youth,” Jones said, “so we’ll have a much larger youth wing in the new building.”
In addition to the expansions, the new building design includes several practical adjustments. Ceiling heights in the lobby and childcare areas will be raised to conform to new standards and the building’s orientation will be rotated to adapt to changes planned for Market Street.
A North Carolina Department of Transportation project will create a median on Market Street from Colonial Drive to New Centre Drive, so Jones said rotating the building 45 degrees would provide better access to both the facility’s parking areas.
The board will send requests for proposals this week in hopes of hiring an architect and construction manager by the end of March. Drawing up construction documents could take between four and six months, Jones said, so the building would likely be renovated throughout 2017, although he emphasized those were rough estimates.
While renovations occur, the facilities currently available to members at the 2710 location — two pools and an open gym — would be closed periodically.
“All that is going to be impacted when we bring in cranes to do demolition, so we’ll have to really put together a schedule of what’s open when and what’s closed when,” Jones said.
Once the new facility is complete, the Express Y, a facility that opened down the street from the YMCA to serve members after the fire, will no longer be available to members. But Jones hopes the YMCA can continue using it for fee-based programs that would support the cost of keeping it open.
“We would love to be able to stay there,” he said.
Fundraising in the form of a capital campaign under the leadership of Cecil Worsley III will pay for about half of the YMCA’s proposed renovations and the rest will come from building insurance. Jones said he’s impressed with how supportive the local community has been through the process of rebuilding.
“We are so appreciative of the community support,” he said. “It’s amazing that we’ve been able to do everything we’ve done this past year without really having our own home.”
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