South Shore YMCA Passes Another Milestone On the Way to Building New Facility in Quincy
Posted on 01/10/2012 in Press Release
QUINCY, MA - The South Shore YMCA announced today that they have passed another milestone in their effort to build a new state-of-the-art YMCA in Quincy to better serve the community. After an extensive work shop and public review process the Quincy Planning Board and the Quincy Conservation Commission granted the YMCA approval to proceed with the project.
The project is being built to meet the increased demand from the community for critical YMCA programs and quality facilities. The new Y will serve an additional 5,000 children and families in the area, and will include a new aquatic center, a larger gym, a synthetic-turf field for indoor sports, expanded health and wellness areas and a 200-meter indoor track. The project is expected to be complete in 2013.
"We are pleased with our continued progress with this project," said South Shore YMCA President and CEO Paul Gorman. "The South Shore Y is dedicated to strengthening the Quincy community, and we know that this new complex will allow us to do so much more for the thousands of individuals we serve on a daily basis."
The new building, which will be located next to the current facility on Coddington Street, will be 118,000 square feet. It will offer the 20,000 adults and children who are active with the Quincy branch of South Shore Y more than twice the usable space offered by the current facility. Escalating repair and maintenance costs have made the current location, which was built in the early 1950's, financially unsustainable and no longer adequate for the increased demands of the growing community.
Once complete, the new facility will house the largest swimming pool and indoor track available to the public in the region. In addition to the athletic amenities, it will house an expanded Early Learning Center, with eight classrooms and an outdoor playground. There will be additional space for the arts, wellness and leadership programs that have become a leading focus of today's YMCA. The new building will also allow the Y to enhance its unique focus on those individuals in the region with developmental and physical disabilities, something the current facility has been unable to fully accommodate.
The new Quincy facility will support the South Shore YMCA's extensive efforts in Germantown, which include a food pantry, GED programs and a Teens at Risk project.
The new facility will illustrate how the Y has evolved over the past several decades, according to Chairman of the Board of Directors Dan DeMarco.
"Most people think of the Y as somewhere to go and work out or take a dip in the pool, but we are so much more than that today," DeMarco said. "We are working to inspire and educate different generations about how to live a healthier life, giving individuals with disabilities an opportunity for more recreational activities, and helping parents and seniors learn more about how to live a healthier lifestyle."
In addition to announcing formal approval of the engineering plan from the city, the South Shore Y also announced that Callahan, Inc. of Bridgewater, MA will be the general contractor for the project. Callahan is a privately held, full service construction firm specializing in Construction Management, Preconstruction and General Contracting services. The company has successfully completed numerous projects throughout the Northeast. Among their many regional projects, Callahan recently served as the general contractor for the new Hanover High School and Athletic Facilities in Hanover, MA. The high school was completed ahead of schedule and came in significantly under budget. The company will be accepting bids for the YMCA project from all interested trade sub-contractors in the very near future.
The new facility will be funded directly by the South Shore Y and private donors. The South Shore Y has already secured close to a third of the cost of the project in the early stages of its Capital Campaign. Conceptual renderings of the new Quincy Y will be available on the website at ssymca.org.
"We are making progress towards our ultimate goal - a state-of-the-art facility that can fully meet the needs of the community far into the future," DeMarco said.
For additional information, please contact Cheryl Botieri, Vice President of Mission Advancement at (617) 479-8500 ext. 178