USAGE SHRINKS WHILE PRIVATE ATHLETIC CLUBS ABOUND
By Maja Ramirez
Special to Inside
Will New City YMCA, 1515 N. Halsted St., be closed? Inside Publications has learned from a source within the organization that the property at Clybourn Ave. and Halsted St. is currently being shopped to developers and will likely be closed once a buyer is chosen for the valuable piece of real estate. Proceeds from the sale are expected to be used to boost the YMCA’s endowment and to establish new YMCA facilities in neighborhoods that have greater need for them, such as Lawndale and North Lawndale.
Rumors and questions over the future of the New City YMCA are circulating around the neighborhood that it has benefited for 25 years. While officials at the YMCA would not confirm or deny the rumors, The New City YMCA web page says, “The YMCA of Metropolitan Chicago anchors every neighborhood… We are committed to being a community partner, an innovative leader, and a developer of leadership, dedicated to meeting the needs of all our neighbors..." but Kevin Heye, the interim executive director, says he has no answers about the future of the YMCA at this site.
Lee Concha, YMCA Director of Community Relations, told Inside: “The whole YMCA is exploring the question of 'Do we need a bricks-and-mortar presence in each community?'” A new YMCA, named Rauner, is supposed to open at 27th St. and Western Ave. in early 2006. Will funds from the sale of New City be required to establish a building to house that new YMCA? “We have a lot of programs in schools, churches, or other community centers,” says Concha, who would not speak to specifics of a proposed sale.
The public housing projects at Cabrini-Green are rapidly disappearing, so some former regular patrons of the New City YMCA are no longer around. While attention from remaining residents of Cabrini-Green has not flagged, especially in regard to child care, the number of members drawn from Old Town and Lincoln Park, who used to participate in the Y’s fitness programs, affectionately called “gym & swim,” has waned. Concha attributes this to the influx of gyms.
Back when New City YMCA opened, there was no Xport Fitness at Piper’s Alley, no Wells St. Athletic Club in the former Bizarre Bazaar, no Women's Gym on Wells St. near Division St. The Equinox Fitness Club had yet to fit into the former clothing store on Clark St. across from Lincoln Park's farmers' market. Cheetah Gym at North and Winchester avenues, and Curves on Armitage Ave. near Racine Ave., didn't exist, on those sites or anywhere in Chicago. Lakeshore Athletic Club on Fullerton Ave. and the East Bank Club on Grand Ave. have also siphoned off potential YMCA members.
At Chicago Home Fitness, just cater-corner from the YMCA, salesman Wade Hastings addresses the question of whether the store gets many people who used to go to the YMCA, and now just want to work out at home. Without hesitating, he answers: “Lots.”
Across Clybourn Ave., Virginia Morris, manager of Flannery apartments, estimates that of all the residents of the 112 units she manages, only five to 10 people, mostly men, go to New City YMCA.
Diane Schmidt, of Old Town, says she used to take her daughter Olivia for swimming at New City but now goes to DePaul. She says that for some kids, the YMCA “is really expensive. It’s twice as much as at DePaul.”
The parcel belonging to the YMCA, approximately six acres of land and buildings in the white hot Clybourn Corridor, is very valuable to a developer who may not care about Cubs Care Park or recent renovations, including the parking lot. It’s hard to put a price tag on the property but depending on the zoning and size of the potential commercial space, the property could fetch upwards of $20 to $40 million. The green grass and blue-to-red-glazed brick building have been a flagship of stability in an area where longtime residents have seen a huge increase in residential and commercial development that has forced many low and middle-income families out of the community.
There is potential for a greater good resulting from the sale of the New City YMCA, that funds from its sale will be used to establish YMCAs in neighborhoods with greater and growing needs. As soon as the YMCA is willing to talk openly about the issue, Inside will be there to report on it. |
