“While the decision to sell the building was not an easy one to make, it is one that allows the Y to invest in serving the community, rather than in costly repairs,” Curt Hazelbaker, president and CEO of the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas explained in part of the statement.
The cost of repairs Hazelbaker refers to, he explained to the Observer in August, add up to more than $8 million. Instead of putting that much money into repairing the 40-year-old facility, leadership began exploring a sale in 2019 and again in 2021.
But the 2023 sale process was different from previous attempts. Unlike before, this time Hazelbaker would not guarantee to downtown members that the Metro board would move forward with a sale only after a new downtown spot had been found for the facility to move to. As of now, without a new location for the downtown YMCA, this sale could very well signal an unceremonious end to a tradition that has rolled on for more than a century.
In an email sent Sept. 15 to employees of the downtown branch, Hazelbaker said, “The T. Boone Pickens YMCA will no longer operate out of the current facility after November 25, 2023.” The email promised that jobs will be made available at other Dallas-area Y locations for all current employees who will no longer report to 601 N. Akard St.
“I have been less hopeful as the summer months progressed.” – Paul Hoffmeyer, Downtown YMCA member
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With only a couple of locations of the Y within a few miles of downtown, it’s reasonable to think that many current employees of the T. Boone Pickens facility will soon have some difficult decisions to make about where they’ll work next. According to an email provided to the Observer by a group fitness instructor, there’s no guarantee that part-time instructors will be able to teach the same number of classes in a new location as they have been teaching downtown.
The sale means that, for the time being, Dallas will be one of the very few major American cities to not have a YMCA gym facility in its downtown district. Paul Hoffmeyer, a longtime member of the Y, and one of the people featured on the Observer cover when we ran our August feature on the future of the downtown location, has been sensing this day was coming.
“I have been less hopeful as the summer months progressed,” he told the Observer. “I knew Mr. Hazelbaker’s intentions have always been to vacate the downtown Y. His premise is flawed. We lose an icon of downtown Dallas that helped the urban community and the proceeds will instead benefit suburban family Y programs.”
Some members of the T. Boone Pickens YMCA in Dallas, including Paul Hoffmeyer (center with raquet).
Nathan Hunsinger
Hazelbaker has denied claims he is seeking to move out of downtown for good. In an email to the Observer, he said that he and his team are still interested in keeping a presence downtown, but there’s no timetable on when a decision will be made. He added that commercial realtor Cushman & Wakefield, at his request, is developing more information on sites downtown and in uptown and is presenting it to the metro board. The CEO declined to disclose the name of the buyer of 601 N. Akard St.
As for the idea there may soon be a new T. Boone Pickens location somewhere near the old one? Hoffmeyer isn’t holding his breath. Should a new downtown or uptown facility ever come to fruition, many members find it hard to believe it will come close to offering what the current one has for decades.
“The footprint will be much smaller without a pool, basketball courts or racquetball courts,” Hoffmeyer said. “You had all those amenities with zero debt against the facility. Now, you intend to buy in a much more expensive area of town. Further, I do not see him [Hazelbaker] following through. Much like how he told us he would have a location to settle to prior to any sale. It’s all lip service and the business community that frequents the T. Boone Pickens Y knows as much.”
