1. Why is the YMCAs of Québec undergoing a transformation?
The Y is reinventing itself, modernizing, and ensuring that a viable financial strategy is in place so it can continue to encourage and inspire all people to fulfill their potential, thrive, and give back to the community for decades to come.
This transformation includes the implementation of numerous projects, which were presented at the 2024 annual general meeting at the end of March and in the 2023 impact report. Specifically, the focus is on implementing a sustainable financial strategy, redefining the YMCAs of Québec’s presence in Greater Montréal, and updating the services offered so that they better meet the needs of today and tomorrow.
2. Is the Downtown YMCA open?
The community programs and the YMCA International Language School are open at the Downtown YMCA. While the large sports facilities have been closed since March 2020, the gymnasium is a favourite spot for the youth who participate in our community programs and is also often rented out to local schools. Furthermore, the Downtown YMCA offers soccer and basketball courses to neighbourhood children.
3. Has the Downtown YMCA been sold or is it for sale?
We are currently redefining our physical presence in downtown Montréal. In the fall of 2023, we launched a call for proposals to find a real estate broker, and we recently selected one. The broker is assisting us with the sale of our building and with finding a new site from which to offer our programs.
4. Why is the Downtown YMCA building for sale?
Changes in people’s lifestyle habits—particularly telecommuting, which has impacted the number of people coming into downtown Montréal—and consequently, the substantial drop in autonomous revenues generated by gym memberships is an important factor to consider in the YMCAs of Québec’s financial model. This decrease in membership revenues has created a funding gap for our mission, which is something not supported by most of our funders.
Selling the building, which is located on Stanley and Drummond Streets, will allow us to invest the revenue from the sale in our mission-driven investment fund. And, as such, allow us to keep serving the needs of the community.
5. Will you continue offering programs in the Peter-McGill district?
Yes, this is our intent. The revenue from the sale of the building will enable us to reinvest in the Y’s mission and ensure we can offer our programs for the long term.
6. Why would fitness activities at the Downtown YMCA not resume until the building is sold, the way they did in other YMCA centres?
The situation for many organizations and companies in downtown Montréal has changed and the YMCA is no exception. We share many of the same challenges as other organizations in the area, and this has forced us to think about the future of the YMCA and how it needs to transform. These challenges are specifically linked to the drop in the number of people working downtown and the changes in work and fitness habits.
As the Downtown YMCA is the largest centre and has the highest maintenance costs, it is no longer feasible for the YMCA to cover the cost of our large fitness facilities without a long-term partnership. Without a partnership, we cannot operate these large fitness facilities, pool included. We would, however, like to offer fitness activities, but they will need to be offered in a different format.
We do encourage you to consult the programming at our other sites in Montréal:
7. Can members fundraise or can you increase membership prices so fitness activities can resume at the Downtown YMCA before the building is sold?
Annual and recurring deficits are too substantial. In addition, the costs of resuming fitness activities at the Downtown YMCA would entail a major investment as the facilities need to be renovated, as well as substantial annual indexed maintenance costs. To date, no potential partner has stepped forward and we can no longer wait. We do, however, encourage our members to get involved in our philanthropic work and fundraising events to support our community programs.
8. Will fitness and aquatic activities be included in the Downtown Y’s transformation project?
It is too soon to say as we are in the process of evaluating all long-term scenarios based on new lifestyle habits, particularly regarding fitness activities.
However, one thing is clear: the fitness habits of residents and workers have changed for good. There are fewer people working out downtown and we cannot and will not be able to cover the costs to maintain the large fitness facilities, including the pool, without a partnership. We would, however, like to offer fitness activities, but they will need to be offered in a different format than they were before the pandemic.
9. Is there no other solution for you aside from the sale of the Downtown YMCA?
We took several years to properly evaluate all the potential long-term scenarios. With the new reality of downtown, redefining our physical presence and moving close by seem to be the most viable and responsible options for the long term.
10. Where and when will you relocate the Downtown YMCA programs?
It is too early to answer this question. We recently chose a real estate broker to assist us in selling the building and in finding new premises, but this will be a lengthy process. For the time being, there are no changes for our teams or our programming. The YMCA International Language School, the TeenZone, and the community programs at the Downtown YMCA are still being offered as usual.
11. What will happen to the special sense of community that existed at the Downtown YMCA?
For over 170 years, the YMCA has been reinventing itself, and continues to do so. Admittedly, redefining our physical presence in downtown will entail changes. However, our intention is to create a new community hub in a smaller space that is more in line with the programming we offer, in the same neighbourhood. It should be noted that, during this transition period, the Peter-McGill Community Council and the Ballet Divertimento School and Choreographic Centre have moved their operations to the Downtown YMCA, allowing us to meet the demand for space from community and cultural organizations.
12. During the transition, will the empty premises at the Downtown YMCA be available to organizations to rent?
When possible, absolutely! We have already approved several requests to rent and we are continuing to examine all the requests we receive. For all rental requests, please email installations.sa@ymcaquebec.org.