A basketball court within the Downtown Denver YMCA. (Courtesy YMCA of Metro Denver)
The YMCA is leaving downtown Denver.
The gym at 25 E. 16th Ave. will shut down Dec. 30, according to the YMCA of Metro Denver.
The organization said Monday that it plans to sell the 45,000 square feet to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which owns the remainder of the building. CCH will turn some of the YMCA space into apartments.
It will be the end of a long run downtown for the YMCA, which constructed its building at the corner of 16th and Lincoln streets in 1906.
“Many YMCAs across the U.S. have seen a downturn post COVID and have been slower to recover given the shift in remote work,” YMCA of Metro Denver spokeswoman Claudia Morlan said in an email. “The Downtown Denver Y was no exception.”
The YMCA of Metro Denver lost $2.2 million on revenue of $26.5 million in 2023, and $2.8 million on revenue of $26 million in 2022, according to public tax filings.
Members of the downtown location can transfer to one of the five other area YMCA locations, each of which is at least a 20-minute drive away. Those that don’t will get a prorated refund.
The building the YMCA is in already includes housing, which the organization once operated. It sold it to CCH in 2001, which has branded the space Renaissance at Civic Center Apartments.
CCH was already planning to renovate the apartments before the opportunity to buy the YMCA space came up, turning units with shared bathrooms into studios and one bedrooms, said Y spokeswoman Cathy Alderman. Now, it plans to do that in conjunction with refashioning the YMCA space, although the basketball court will remain.
CCH hopes to secure financing in 2026 and begin work in 2027.
Terms of the pending sale weren’t disclosed. The Denver assessor values the YMCA’s downtown real estate at $7.1 million.
One possible financier could be Denver’s Downtown Development Authority, which has $570 million in bond money to spend on revitalizing downtown. In July, CCH asked the city affiliate for $15 million toward a $75.5 million project at 25 E. 16th Ave.
Alderman said that request was made before the deal for the YMCA space came together, and thus just pertained to renovations of the existing apartments. She said CCH hasn’t decided whether it will ask for more money.
A basketball court within the Downtown Denver YMCA. (Courtesy YMCA of Metro Denver)
The YMCA is leaving downtown Denver.
The gym at 25 E. 16th Ave. will shut down Dec. 30, according to the YMCA of Metro Denver.
The organization said Monday that it plans to sell the 45,000 square feet to the Colorado Coalition for the Homeless, which owns the remainder of the building. CCH will turn some of the YMCA space into apartments.
It will be the end of a long run downtown for the YMCA, which constructed its building at the corner of 16th and Lincoln streets in 1906.
“Many YMCAs across the U.S. have seen a downturn post COVID and have been slower to recover given the shift in remote work,” YMCA of Metro Denver spokeswoman Claudia Morlan said in an email. “The Downtown Denver Y was no exception.”
The YMCA of Metro Denver lost $2.2 million on revenue of $26.5 million in 2023, and $2.8 million on revenue of $26 million in 2022, according to public tax filings.
Members of the downtown location can transfer to one of the five other area YMCA locations, each of which is at least a 20-minute drive away. Those that don’t will get a prorated refund.
The building the YMCA is in already includes housing, which the organization once operated. It sold it to CCH in 2001, which has branded the space Renaissance at Civic Center Apartments.
CCH was already planning to renovate the apartments before the opportunity to buy the YMCA space came up, turning units with shared bathrooms into studios and one bedrooms, said Y spokeswoman Cathy Alderman. Now, it plans to do that in conjunction with refashioning the YMCA space, although the basketball court will remain.
CCH hopes to secure financing in 2026 and begin work in 2027.
Terms of the pending sale weren’t disclosed. The Denver assessor values the YMCA’s downtown real estate at $7.1 million.
One possible financier could be Denver’s Downtown Development Authority, which has $570 million in bond money to spend on revitalizing downtown. In July, CCH asked the city affiliate for $15 million toward a $75.5 million project at 25 E. 16th Ave.
Alderman said that request was made before the deal for the YMCA space came together, and thus just pertained to renovations of the existing apartments. She said CCH hasn’t decided whether it will ask for more money.
