After overcoming a host of maintenance issues, the South Y facility on Racquet Club Drive off South Airport Road remains open. But according to Andrew Page, Grand Traverse Bay YMCA’s President and CEO, it is aging and at capacity.

“There’s not an opportunity to improve or expand,” he says, citing its location surrounded by wetlands. “We just did some upgrades with lighting and added a new furnace and redid the drive. But it’s not going to have a sustainable life.”

Page says the Y has just embarked on creating a strategic plan for the next three years. “Need and capacity and funding—those are big unanswered questions,” Page says. He says discussions among staff, those who use the facilities, the general public and its governmental partners will be taking place to determine how to move ahead.

Page, who arrived to head the Grand Traverse Bay YMCA just over a year ago, oversees all aspects of the Traverse City organization and its three locations. That includes the facility on Silver Lake Road, which opened in September 2014, the Central location at the Grand Traverse County Civic Center and the original location, now dubbed the South Y. 

Despite its aging facility, the South Y still serves as a hub for some activities. Page calls its pickleball scene robust and its basketball courts are in use for youth and leagues. It also is the home for the Y’s summer camp programs. “We plan to be there as long as we can,” he says. 

How long that will be has yet to be determined. The facility is leased from Garfield Township, which Page calls a great partner. Though the two just signed a new five-year lease this past fall, Page says there is language allowing the Y to leave if necessary without fulfilling the entire term of the lease. He says there are no plans to mothball it anytime soon, but any additional renovations or expansion would take place at the West location. 

Since it opened just over five years ago, Traverse City’s West Y has only gotten more popular. “We see increased usage. We have to start to think about the next steps in the expansion of what we offer. That means phase II,” says Page. Discussions and the eventual plan derived from them will also shed light on what to do at the South Y.

At the South Y,  “Pickleball is growing. It’s such a valuable community sport,” says Page. But while that adds to the revenue, Page says the South facility is “break-even at best. We often have to subsidize it.” 

The Central location includes the Easling pool and a small wellness center. “That has been going along very well,” says Page, noting it has seen steady growth. It is owned by Grand Traverse County and managed by the Y.

The international YMCA was originally chartered in London as the Young Men’s Christian Association in 1844, with an emphasis on putting Christian principles into practice by developing a healthy body, mind and spirit. The modern-day Y in the U.S.—its name was officially changed to simply the Y in this country in 2010—is perhaps best known for its facilities for various athletics endeavors. 

Though Traverse City’s Ys offer everything from swimming to gymnastics, pickleball to cardio to basketball, open gyms to fitness classes, Page says the organization’s mission is not solely to embrace sports and fitness. “Our biggest focus is to build community,” he says. “The beneficial thing about the YMCA is you focus on well-being. It’s an amazing feeling.

Page says he is pleased to see how engaged the Traverse City community is with the organization and its facilities. “This is my third association with the Y,” Page says, having worked at Ys in Rochester, New York and Grand Rapids previously. “The biggest surprise here, and it’s a good thing, was how incredibly reliant the community is on the Y.

“It’s a multi-generational facility,” he continues. “We have kids in day care and 90-year-olds playing tennis. It’s a city within a city.”