City board OKs plans for downtown YMCA
- October 30, 2014
- / Shannon Nickinson
- / education
The downtown YMCA is slowly coming to life.
The City of Pensacola’s Architectural Review Board approved the design of the 52,000 square foot building at 100 Intendencia St. at a special meeting this afternoon.
The building’s exterior will be a dynamic change from the cramped, outdated space the YMCA currently operates from on North Palafox Street.
The design also is meant to help serve as a transition between the bustle of the commercial business district on Palafox and the residential neighborhood that begins on the east side of Tarragona Street.
The design, by Bay Design Associates, went before the board previously and some aspects of the building's exterior were changed based on input from ARB members. Bay Design is partnered with the national design firm of Reynolds, Smith & Hill, which has designed more than 20 new or redeveloped YMCA facilities.
[caption id="attachment_8350" align="alignright" width="300"]
The aquatics center of the new downtown YMCA, which faces Tarragona Street.[/caption]
"You challenged us to come up with a better design and we thank you for that," said Steve Jernigan of Bay Design.
Jernigan said the design reflects the YMCA's programmatic needs and its core values of healthy living, youth development and community involvement.
"We thought it was a great, great start,” said Ben Townes, an architect by trade and chairman of the board. “It just needed some additional polishing, as every job does, and they’ve refined it a little bit more.
“We are doing everything we can to facilitate the Y and this project.”
The ARB is a committee that reviews construction projects in the historic district of downtown Pensacola. They have input on things such as mass of a project and materials used. Their aim is to maintain an aesthetic for the historic district.
At Thursday's meeting, some board members had suggestions about ways to ensure the entrance is well-lit and clearly visible. Construction is set to begin on the facility early next year.
Y’s new home
The site is now a parking lot once owned by the Pensacola News Journal. The PNJ has relocated to the corner of Palafox and Garden. Last year, Quint and Rishy Studer, through their company Daily Convo LLC, purchased 5.8 acres — including the parking lot — from the PNJ’s parent company, Gannett.
The Studers paid $3.4 million for the property. They donated property on the south side of Intendencia Street to the Northwest Florida YMCA, as well as a $5 million monetary donation. Greenhut Construction is the general contractor.
[caption id="attachment_8352" align="alignright" width="300"]
The gymnasium of the new downtown Pensacola YMCA, which faces Intendencia Street.[/caption]
The new Y will include an aquatic center, a gymnasium, a wellness center, group exercise space, a KidZone, a demo kitchen, and multipurpose rooms that can be used for a wide variety of programs and events.
"It should be the jewel," Jernigan said. "It stands on its own" but doesn't dictate what the rest of the development should look like.
The block where the old PNJ building now sits is slated for redevelopment as a mixed use residential, retail and office use project, an investment of nearly $50 million. It's proximity to the Y is part of its appeal to the target demographic for the apartments planned there — young professionals.
The effort to relocate the downtown YMCA began to gain traction when the idea was a key recommendation of Mayor Ashton Hayward’s Urban Redevelopment Advisory Committee’s report, issued in 2011.
Last year, a high-profile bid to build a new Y on Site 8 of the Community Maritime Park fell apart. The plan — which included a $5 million seed donation by the Studers that was site-specific — was approved by Pensacola City Council but rejected by the Community Maritime Park Associates Board.
The YMCA would have paid $120,000 in annual lease fees for Site 8, which remains undeveloped. As a nonprofit, Y would not pay property tax on the PNJ site, nor do they pay property tax on the current location.
Financing includes the Studers $5 million, a capital fundraising campaign and New Market Tax Credits. The credits are a federal program established in 2000 under the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act to incentivize development in low-income or impoverished communities.
Essentially, the government issues the tax credits to Community Development Entities, which go through a rigorous qualification process. Those entities then issue the credits to projects that will benefit low-income communities. The end user of the credit gets a loan for a qualified project. If they meet all the criteria and pay a nominal interest rate on the loan for seven years, the debt is forgiven.
The aquatics center of the new downtown YMCA, which faces Tarragona Street.[/caption]
"You challenged us to come up with a better design and we thank you for that," said Steve Jernigan of Bay Design.
Jernigan said the design reflects the YMCA's programmatic needs and its core values of healthy living, youth development and community involvement.
"We thought it was a great, great start,” said Ben Townes, an architect by trade and chairman of the board. “It just needed some additional polishing, as every job does, and they’ve refined it a little bit more.
“We are doing everything we can to facilitate the Y and this project.”
The ARB is a committee that reviews construction projects in the historic district of downtown Pensacola. They have input on things such as mass of a project and materials used. Their aim is to maintain an aesthetic for the historic district.
At Thursday's meeting, some board members had suggestions about ways to ensure the entrance is well-lit and clearly visible. Construction is set to begin on the facility early next year.
Y’s new home
The site is now a parking lot once owned by the Pensacola News Journal. The PNJ has relocated to the corner of Palafox and Garden. Last year, Quint and Rishy Studer, through their company Daily Convo LLC, purchased 5.8 acres — including the parking lot — from the PNJ’s parent company, Gannett.
The Studers paid $3.4 million for the property. They donated property on the south side of Intendencia Street to the Northwest Florida YMCA, as well as a $5 million monetary donation. Greenhut Construction is the general contractor.
[caption id="attachment_8352" align="alignright" width="300"]
The gymnasium of the new downtown Pensacola YMCA, which faces Intendencia Street.[/caption]
The new Y will include an aquatic center, a gymnasium, a wellness center, group exercise space, a KidZone, a demo kitchen, and multipurpose rooms that can be used for a wide variety of programs and events.
"It should be the jewel," Jernigan said. "It stands on its own" but doesn't dictate what the rest of the development should look like.
The block where the old PNJ building now sits is slated for redevelopment as a mixed use residential, retail and office use project, an investment of nearly $50 million. It's proximity to the Y is part of its appeal to the target demographic for the apartments planned there — young professionals.
The effort to relocate the downtown YMCA began to gain traction when the idea was a key recommendation of Mayor Ashton Hayward’s Urban Redevelopment Advisory Committee’s report, issued in 2011.
Last year, a high-profile bid to build a new Y on Site 8 of the Community Maritime Park fell apart. The plan — which included a $5 million seed donation by the Studers that was site-specific — was approved by Pensacola City Council but rejected by the Community Maritime Park Associates Board.
The YMCA would have paid $120,000 in annual lease fees for Site 8, which remains undeveloped. As a nonprofit, Y would not pay property tax on the PNJ site, nor do they pay property tax on the current location.
Financing includes the Studers $5 million, a capital fundraising campaign and New Market Tax Credits. The credits are a federal program established in 2000 under the Community Renewal Tax Relief Act to incentivize development in low-income or impoverished communities.
Essentially, the government issues the tax credits to Community Development Entities, which go through a rigorous qualification process. Those entities then issue the credits to projects that will benefit low-income communities. The end user of the credit gets a loan for a qualified project. If they meet all the criteria and pay a nominal interest rate on the loan for seven years, the debt is forgiven.
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