City of Gadsden buys former YMCA of the Coosa Valley building for $950,000

The City of Gadsden now owns the YMCA of the Coosa Valley’s former building at 100 Walnut St.

City officials and the YMCA’s board of directors on Tuesday finalized the sale of the property, for $950,000. The City Council approved the transaction after a unanimous vote to suspend the rules and consider it immediately.

The move gives the city options for a valuable piece of property as it moves forward with plans to develop the riverfront area, and erases the YMCA’s short- and long-term debt as it seeks to continue serving the community in a different way.

The YMCA in February announced that it was closing the site it had called home for nearly 60 years, effective April 15, and placing it on the market, citing the impact of COVID-19 on its membership (particularly seniors), changing trends in Gadsden and cash flow issues.

Mayor Craig Ford said when he heard that, “I thought we should do what we could to purchase that property.

“This deal allows the YMCA to meet its financial obligations and gives it the opportunity to continue to offer services in the community," he added, “while creating new opportunities for the former YMCA building.”

The selling price includes all non-leased items in the building, including furniture and exercise equipment (except cardio machines). The funds used for the purchase came from recent sales of unused city properties, according to a news release, so there was no impact to the budget.

“We’re sad to lose our building,” said LeRoy Falcon, the YMCA’s executive director. “But the economics of the situation required us to make the decision to get out from under it.”

Falcon said the building “was worth more than we owed on it,” which was to the YMCA’s advantage, plus the agency has in recent years been able to reduce its long-term debt.

“My responsibility as the local YMCA director is to be a good steward,” he added, noting that if the agency had kept on the same path, it “eventually would’ve dug a hole, and that’s not fiscally responsible.”

Falcon promised that the agency is “going to continue operating programs within Etowah County,” stepping back to the YMCA’s format in its earliest days when it operated “without walls.”

An agreement is in place to collaborate with the Gadsden City school system on its summer camps and its after-school programs this fall, and Falcon said he’d like to see the YMCA’s involvement stretch beyond Gadsden into places like Glencoe, Rainbow City and Southside.

He’s also open to individuals and organizations that might want to partner with the YMCA on programs.

As for the YMCA’s old building, there’s a chance that parts of it (and Gadsden’s current police building nearby) might be impacted as the city moves forward with its riverfront development plans (which include rerouting U.S. Highway 411/Albert Rains Boulevard).

Still, Ford said the space could be used as a city gym, a new police building or something he’d really like to see — a child care center for city employees.

“As we address employee recruitment and retention challenges, one of the biggest impediments to workforce participation is access to child care,” the mayor said. “Sometimes it’s about affordability, but other times it’s simply about access to child care options, period.

“So, if we’re looking to bring in young men and women to our police, fire and city ranks to replace retirees,” Ford said, “it would be nice to alleviate that looming question of, ‘Who is going to watch my kids when I am at work?’ "

This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: City of Gadsden buys former YMCA site