News

YMCA to get $800,000 renovation

Renovation will include taking down walls to create a more open space for the YMCA.

By Bill Moss, Published: October 17, 2013

The Hendersonville YMCA will get a facelift of its lobby, an open floor plan on the ground floor and renovation of the wellness center in an $800,000 project to update the aging facility.

John Mikos, the chief operating officer of the YMCA of Western North Carolina, said the project is the first phase of a planned three-phase upgrade that also includes renovating the locker rooms in the second phase and work on the exterior and parking lots in a third.
"One of our biggest challenges has always been the age of the facility," said Mikos. "Although we'd like to do it all we can at least do one phase at a time."
The work, scheduled to start in November, will require a contractor to close off the fitness center. Some of treadmills, elliptical machines and other workout equipment will be moved upstairs to the gym. The work is expected to go on until February. When it's done, Mikos said, the interior entrance of the building, offices and fitness center will be completely different — with more open space and room for new programs the YMCA plans to start.
He acknowledged that the construction will cause inconvenience and maybe a traffic jam among dedicated exercisers because only about a third of the equipment will be relocated to the temporary center in the gym.
"We don't have the space to replace everything we have downstairs in the gym," Mikos said. There will be few free weights in the temporary gym location, for instance. "We'll be offering alternatives for cardiovascular and strength training but it will be limited," he added.
The current administrative offices behind the front desk, the wellness center and program rooms on either side of the hallway will be gutted for the new open plan, he said. Plans include a new multipurpose room and a facelift for the youth room off the entrance hallway of the 55-year-old building.
"It's going to be open because all the walls are going to get taken down," he said. "This needs to be done, and of course people can use the other YMCA facilities."
The Hendersonville Y is a branch of the consolidated YMCA of Western North Carolina. Members are allowed to use the Reuters Family YMCA at Biltmore Park, the YMCA in downtown Asheville and other YMCAs in the region. A new YMCA at the Mission Pardee Health Campus in Fletcher is under construction and expected to open next summer.