ROCKBRIDGE COUNTY, Va. – Rockbridge County is getting a new YMCA. After years in the same location, the Y is moving to a new space. And five years down the road – if all goes according to plan, the community will have an even bigger YMCA.
People have been sweating, strengthening, and generally burning calories at the Rockbridge County YMCA for years now. But soon they’ll be doing it elsewhere.
“We will move out of this YMCA in early December,” said Mark Johnson, CEO of YMCA of Virginia’s Blue Ridge.
The Y has been in the Collage Square Shopping Center, next to Tractor Supply. But late this year, the fitness center will transition to an 8,500-square-foot space in Stonewall Square just a few miles down the road.
Chad Whitmer, the executive director of the Rockbridge County YMCA, says the new space is like a blank canvas.
“Well, right here where we’re standing - this will be, for the most part, cardio equipment, treadmills and bikes and that kind of stuff,” Whitmer said, pointing at what right now is wide open space.
He says by the time December rolls around, it will look, feel and function like a YMCA.
“Free weights, cardio machines, classes. Pin machines, everything,” he said.
It will take a bit of effort to move all the equipment…
“We’ll get a crew in here, obviously. We’ll have a U-Haul and a crew, and it happens pretty quickly,” Johnson said.
Johnson says he expects there will only be a few days when the Y is closed as they make the transition.
Bigger things are planned for the YMCA
But the big news is what happens in a few years, when they hope to move the Y to a permanent location.
“We’re in the planning phase now for a permanent home … We’re in the early phases of raising money for so that we can build a new YMCA that’s really meant to serve this community for the next… 50 years and the space that our members have been asking for, and the community’s been asking for - for a long time and we’re kind of on the precipice of being able to make that happen,” Johnson said.
As they did in Botetourt County, where a new Y opened in 2019, Johnson says YMCA of Virginia’s Blue Ridge wants to open a free-standing Rockbridge County YMCA, complete with a swimming pool and more amenities.
It’s a project that will cost tens of millions of dollars. Johnson says that’s a heavy lift. He thinks it will take about five years to raise the money and build the new Y.
“That’s kind of the number we’ve landed on is about a five-year plan to be in the space we’re moving to while we engage the community and raise the funds and get a new space built. That’s the dream and what we’re really planning for with the short-term move. That is the long-term solution, really,” Johnson said.