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CANTON —
The downtown YMCA building is for sale. And the agency’s board of trustees hopes to decide the structure’s future by the end of the year.
That could mean renovating or demolishing it and constructing a new YMCA facility. Or selling the property and not building a new YMCA.
A board meeting scheduled for late last month was canceled. The deadline for accepting bids for the nine-story building at 405 Second St. NW has been extended to Wednesday, said Tim Shetzer, chief executive officer for the YMCA of Central Stark County.
COMMITTEE TO REVIEW BIDS
The YMCA finance committee is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss any bids and proposals. The committee will make a recommendation to the board, which is set to meet Oct. 21. However, the board might not make a decision on the building until its November meeting, Shetzer said.
In late summer 2008, the downtown YMCA was shut down. YMCA officials cited financial reasons, including operating and utility costs.
An update recently was sent to “friends of the YMCA,” which includes board members from the individual YMCA branches and community leaders, Shetzer said.
The letter says that the YMCA continues to serve Canton youth and adults at various locations, including schools. And more than 1,000 Canton children are being served at the Meyers Lake YMCA. More than 6,000 Canton residents are YMCA members at other locations, according to the letter.
OPTIONS FOR YMCA
Options include demolishing the building and constructing a modern, energy-efficient YMCA at or near the downtown site. Renovation is another possibility, Shetzer said.
An option cited in the letter is selling the building and keeping the parking lot as the site of a new YMCA. One concept is a 35,000-square-foot, two-story YMCA, said Edwin Lair, president of the board of trustees for the YMCA of Central Stark County.
Bids also are being accepted for building demolition in case that is the route the board decides to take. Two parcels make up the YMCA property — one for the building and another for the parking lot.
Potential scenarios for the site vary. A developer could build a new YMCA, working out a lease agreement with the agency, Lair said. Or the YMCA could own a renovated or new building. “We’re looking at every angle,” he said Wednesday. “We’re not ruling out anything, but nothing is decided.”
Much of the 100,000-square-foot downtown YMCA building is about 100 years old, according to the YMCA letter. And one month’s heating bill was roughly $25,000, the letter notes.
The downtown YMCA building is for sale. And the agency’s board of trustees hopes to decide the structure’s future by the end of the year.
That could mean renovating or demolishing it and constructing a new YMCA facility. Or selling the property and not building a new YMCA.
A board meeting scheduled for late last month was canceled. The deadline for accepting bids for the nine-story building at 405 Second St. NW has been extended to Wednesday, said Tim Shetzer, chief executive officer for the YMCA of Central Stark County.
COMMITTEE TO REVIEW BIDS
The YMCA finance committee is scheduled to meet Thursday to discuss any bids and proposals. The committee will make a recommendation to the board, which is set to meet Oct. 21. However, the board might not make a decision on the building until its November meeting, Shetzer said.
In late summer 2008, the downtown YMCA was shut down. YMCA officials cited financial reasons, including operating and utility costs.
An update recently was sent to “friends of the YMCA,” which includes board members from the individual YMCA branches and community leaders, Shetzer said.
The letter says that the YMCA continues to serve Canton youth and adults at various locations, including schools. And more than 1,000 Canton children are being served at the Meyers Lake YMCA. More than 6,000 Canton residents are YMCA members at other locations, according to the letter.
OPTIONS FOR YMCA
Options include demolishing the building and constructing a modern, energy-efficient YMCA at or near the downtown site. Renovation is another possibility, Shetzer said.
An option cited in the letter is selling the building and keeping the parking lot as the site of a new YMCA. One concept is a 35,000-square-foot, two-story YMCA, said Edwin Lair, president of the board of trustees for the YMCA of Central Stark County.
Bids also are being accepted for building demolition in case that is the route the board decides to take. Two parcels make up the YMCA property — one for the building and another for the parking lot.
Potential scenarios for the site vary. A developer could build a new YMCA, working out a lease agreement with the agency, Lair said. Or the YMCA could own a renovated or new building. “We’re looking at every angle,” he said Wednesday. “We’re not ruling out anything, but nothing is decided.”
Much of the 100,000-square-foot downtown YMCA building is about 100 years old, according to the YMCA letter. And one month’s heating bill was roughly $25,000, the letter notes.
Overall, the economic downturn has affected all YMCA branch locations in Stark County, according to the letter from Shetzer and Craig Greenlee, vice president of operations for the YMCA of Central Stark County.
“Please know that if the building is renovated in the future, it will have to be prepared as a ‘white box’ to improve the design as well as the energy efficiency of the building,” the letter says.
‘DOWNTOWN LIVING’
Local developer and preservationist Steve Coon says he’s worked for about three years on a proposal to renovate and modernize the YMCA facility, while converting part of the existing building into 53
one-and-two bedroom market-rate apartments.
“If the downtown is going to come back, it can’t come back without downtown living,” Coon said.
In June 2008, the board of trustees voted to finalize negotiations for the project with Coon and his partners. The agency estimated its share would have cost at least
$3.5 million, with the expectation that state and federal tax credits for historic buildings would reduce the YMCA’s share.
The board backed off the proposal last summer. Shetzer cited economic reasons, including projections that a renovated facility would lose money on operating costs. And those same economic constraints still exist, Lair said.
Lair said Wednesday the board doesn’t know how the YMCA would raise the money needed to pay for the construction of a renovated or new facility. And operating costs remain a concern, he said.
A downtown YMCA does not have to break even financially, Lair said, “but it can’t be a significant drain year after year.”
Coon said Thursday that his group of partners has not decided whether to submit a bid to buy the building.
But, “We’re interested in keeping the YMCA downtown and putting them back into a newly built, state-of-the-art facility in downtown Canton,” he said.
COON’S PARTNERS
Coon is again working with Max Deuble, a trustee for the Deuble Foundation, on the latest potential proposal. Other partners include Don Taylor, president and chief executive officer of the Fairlawn-based Welty Building Co.; Joe Parsons, retired president of Albrecht Inc., a commercial real-estate development company in Akron; and William J. Ginter, who has worked with Parsons on projects.
“It’s a very, very strong development team,” Coon said.
Parsons said that Albrecht Inc. developed shopping center projects in the Canton and Akron areas, including North Canton and Hudson. “We’re looking for projects that are meaningful. It sounds a little trite, perhaps, but fortunately we’re in a position to do things that we believe improve the communities where the properties are, and that’s what interested us in the (YMCA building) in Canton,” he said.
Parsons and Ginter partnered on the restoration of a historic post office in downtown Akron that is leased to Summa Health System for office space.
“It’s a viable project,” Parsons said of renovating the downtown Canton YMCA. “Yes, these are very difficult economic times and projects are very difficult to do right now.”
Tax credits for historic preservation “are designed to make projects work that would not otherwise work (financially),” Parsons said.
“I think the (YMCA) has some decisions to make,” Parsons said Thursday. “What is its mission? I think it would just be a shame to take that building down.”
Parsons said he believes the YMCA should serve a “broader base of residents” outside suburban communities. “I think it’s important the (YMCA) maintains a presence downtown for the (YMCA’s) sake and also for the city’s sake.”
ECONOMIC CLIMATE
Coon, owner of Coon Restoration & Sealants in Nimishillen Township, said his Onesto apartment project in downtown Canton has been slowed. In the current economic climate, it’s difficult to borrow money for historic preservation projects, he said.
“I haven’t shut the Onesto (project) down,” Coon said Thursday. “I’m pouring concrete, patching up holes, I’m just not doing full-blown construction. But I do have my construction drawings complete, and it is ready to go out to bid, and I really anticipate getting this all worked out before Christmas and it will be back on track.”
Coon opposes demolition of the YMCA. “That building is an important part of our downtown skyline in our historic district,” he said.
“I’ve always been part of the solution, not part of the problem, but if they tear that building down, that’s going to be part of the problem, not part of the solution,” Coon said. “It’s just flat out this is the right thing to do.”ﻱ
