The YMCA location on Seventh Street has permanently closed.
Danny McConnell, president of the Greater Augusta YMCA, said the downtown branch had been operating at a loss since before even moving to 7th Street from its previous location on Broad Street.
“Our locations in the area somewhat stand alone in terms of paying their own bills,” he said. “Truthfully, I believe there are just currently not enough rooftops downtown to support this facility. The location on Broad Street also lost money for years. Our hope was that this location would have new life with lower operating costs, but the same issues occurred, and we didn’t have enough people coming into that location.”
McConnell said that the day the doors closed, Nov. 30 was a day he dreaded.
“It is a sad day,” McConnell said. “Closing down a Y that serves people in this community is not what we want to do. We feel for our loyal members there, and our heart reaches out for them. COVID-19 played into it. It certainly was the final nail in the coffin. It was time.”
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The location is under lease by the YMCA through Jordan Trotter. According to McConnell, the commercial real estate company will try to find a new tenant while the YMCA honors the remaining time on the lease.
McConnell was happy to announce, however, that “anybody who wanted a job” was relocated to other branches in the area.
“I’m so thankful we were able to move anyone who wanted a job,” he said. “Almost 100% of the staff stayed with us and will be moved to the North Augusta location and our Wheeler Road location.”
Timing is everything, the CEO said, and he has “no doubt” that the YMCA will one day have a presence in Downtown Augusta some other time as the area continues to grow.
The resources from the Riverfront YMCA will be sent to area branches that need them, including exercise equipment.
“The good thing is we get to strengthen our other branches and our overall mission in the area,” McConnell said.”
The other nine locations of the YMCA throughout the CSRA will remain unchanged, and the downtown area will still be involved in the Y’s outreach programs such as A Place to Dream, Y on the Fly and Cheryl’s Kitchen Food Program.
The Riverfront YMCA opened in 2018, when TaxSlayer moved into the building on Broad Street that used to house the downtown YMCA location.
Tyler Strong is the Business Editor for The Augusta Press. Reach him at tyler@theaugustapress.com
