On Monday morning, Curt Hazelbaker, president and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas, wrote in an email to the downtown branch’s board of managers that the sale of the building the facility is housed in had fallen through. Hazelbaker wrote “that the buyer did not move forward as anticipated.”
“In light of this, the T. Boone Pickens YMCA will remain open, with normal operations. While this is an unexpected turn, it speaks to the current market,” the email read. “We are not actively marketing the YMCA building. With this in mind, if an opportunity presents itself where a new buyer is interested and it is a smart, fair deal for the Y, the Board of Directors has a fiduciary responsibility to consider it.”
Hazelbaker’s email also included a list of “talking points.” The responses we received to our questions from Hazelbaker closely resembled those, as did the contents of the email.
He confirmed to the Observer that the building is not being listed again for sale at this point, and that he expects the majority of the location’s employees to remain downtown. “The Y remains committed to serving the downtown/uptown community, while also allowing the organization to be the best steward of member, donor and community dollars,” Hazelbaker added.
The main pain point between Hazelbaker and those who opposed the sale developed in February when the metro board of directors decided to move forward with sale of the building without promising to find a new downtown location to move the gym to. This was a different approach from when the building had been up for sale in 2019 and again in 2021.
In an interview in June, Hazelbaker said the high cost of maintaining the building was a driving factor in the board’s increased determination to sell. In June, it was estimated that around $8 million in repairs were needed to member-facing areas as well as other major items, including improved air conditioning.
“It is extremely disappointing that YMCA leadership moved forward with trying to sell when there were so many reasons not to." – Paul Lindenberger, YMCA member
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On top of that, he added, the downtown Y would continue to offer almost all of its community outreach programs whether there was a building downtown or not. Efforts such as the annual sponsorship of the Dallas YMCA Turkey Trot, a water safety program, childcare, food distribution and a college scholarship program were all set to continue, Hazelbaker said.
Such bullet points, although reasonable, weren't enough to keep plenty of members from feeling a bit hoodwinked by the sale. To them, the notion remained that the gym facility itself was of tremendous value to the community in a number of ways.
Compared with many large gyms, the membership prices there were more affordable, for one example. And few places in town, regardless of neighborhood, offered the chance for so many people from different backgrounds and statuses to conveniently enjoy a game of pickup basketball or fitness class with one another in what was widely considered to be one of the best gyms anywhere in Dallas. By taking the gym away from the central business district, the metro board was taking something of consequence away from the people who worked and lived in and near downtown, many members believed.
Instead of a full commitment to keep the Y downtown in 2023 and beyond, where it has been in one form or another since 1885, Hazelbaker left open the possibility of finding new space in a small section of downtown or in Uptown. As of late September, a new location had not been found when the sale went under contract.
There is a sense of relief among the downtown Y’s membership, but some longtime members aren’t quite rejoicing at the last-second pardon their beloved gym received.
Paul Hoffmeyer told the Observer that he’s happy about the sale falling through, but he’s still leery about the future since he doesn’t trust Hazelbaker. Paul Lindenberger, who is both a longtime member of the Y and a board member for the branch, has similar feelings. He has recently cut back his support of the YMCA because of his distaste for the events of the past year and what he calls a “lack of confidence” in the senior Metro Y board.
“It is extremely disappointing that YMCA leadership moved forward with trying to sell when there were so many reasons not to, particularly in this commercial real environment and no plan for post-sale,” Lindenberger told the Observer. “If senior leadership would have listened to the volunteers that it appointed and the local downtown community, all of this would have been avoided.”
Both Hoffmeyer and Lindenberger kept their memberships current, but that’s not the case with others. Some have described making the decision to leave the downtown Y and going through the effort and cost to join a new gym elsewhere in recent weeks, only to hear it was all for naught. Well, at least for now it seems as though the move was made for nothing.
The gym staying open downtown is welcome news, there’s no doubt, but there are scars that will take time to heal. Given the twists and turns that the story of the T. Boone Pickens YMCA has taken recently, Hoffmeyer will take the good news when it comes, but not presume it will stay that way until he has a reason to.
“I have no confidence in the metro board and the real question to be answered is ‘What is the intent and direction moving forward?’” Hoffmeyer said. “I am waiting to hear back regarding that response. I do not believe I will get one.”
