Camden Y closing; church buying site

The Camden YMCA is closing and the downtown building will be sold, though YMCA officials said yesterday they hoped to continue some core programs elsewhere.

"We will still be in Camden; we're just getting out of the real estate business," said Jeffrey J. Land, president of the Camden County YMCA board of directors.

Camden Y membership has plummeted over the years from a peak of 1,200 in the early 1990s to its current 25, Land said yesterday. He said many only have membership to take advantage of the Y's $35-a-month fee that allows them to park in the downtown lot at 250 Federal St., just blocks from the waterfront. That membership cost was cheaper than the $65 a month charged for parking elsewhere in that area.

The Y continued to operate some programs, such as day care and summer camp, Land said, but he did not say what plans were being made for their future. Land was unclear when the Y officially would close.

The Rev. Harold Sutton, pastor of the Assembly of God Church, across from City Hall in the Parkade Building, said his church expected to purchase the Y building in the next 30 days. He did not disclose the price, but said the church would pay market value.

"It's a great opportunity," he said, adding that final financial settlement and financial arrangements were in progress.

"We had to compete with everybody for the building at market value," he said. "No one gave us anything."

Land said the organization hoped to rent space from the church. But Sutton said he knew of no such arrangement. He said his congregation planned to use the Y gymnasium for church services and would use the swimming pool for its own fitness facility, one that would be similar in scope to YMCA programs.

Sutton had directed a YMCA in Philadelphia, he said, and was familiar with Y operations.

The Camden YMCA received a $530,000 grant in 2006 from the Economic Recovery Board, which oversees the distribution of money for Camden revitalization.

Land said that a major cause of the financial problems was that Y officials underestimated the costs of building renovation for which the ERB grant was used.

"We encountered more expenses than anticipated in renovation of the building," he said.

The Y also received $172,000 from the state to establish a visitor center, which has not worked out, Land said.

The Camden Y also had struggled in spite of financial aid from the once-prosperous Voorhees branch, Land said. But even that Y has hit harder times, he said, with the loss of businesses at Echelon Mall and surrounding area. He said, though, that membership at the Voorhees branch is now about 4,100; at one time it was 4,800.

He said the Camden YMCA's unappealing location just across from the Camden County Jail had long been a problem. A projected increase in business from the state aquarium and the Tweeter Center never happened. Instead, traffic congestion from the Tweeter Center during concerts helped choke off access to the Y.

Other nearby enterprises, such as the Victor Building and L3 Communications, have their own fitness centers. He said Campbell Soup Co. is now planning a fitness center.

The 127-year-old YMCA at one time served hundreds of families in the city and presented programs for children and families, including a special Abbott school program, from which five people were laid off last month.

At one time it even offered midnight basketball to keep Camden youth off the streets.