Tuscaloosa Eyes Next Steps, Fall 2024 Opening For New Benjamin Barnes YMCA

TUSCALOOSA, AL — The Tuscaloosa City Council's Public Projects Committee will take up a measure Tuesday that would see the city hire a firm for owner representation services and program management for the new home of the Benjamin Barnes Branch YMCA.

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If approved, a professional services agreement would be made with Mobile-based Volkert, Inc. in the amount of $454,200.

City officials said the firm will then move forward with negotiations regarding the scope and fee of the project, which will see a new facility built on the McDonald Hughes Center campus in Tuscaloosa's West End.

Under the agreement, Volkert would also be tasked managing the time, cost, and quality of projects from pre-design through move-in and warranty coordination.

As it stands, the city's is aims to open the new facility in the fall of 2024.

As Patch previously reported in March, the Tuscaloosa City Council chose the McDonald Hughes Center campus from a list of five potential sites for the big move for the Benjamin Barnes Branch YMCA. Other proposed sites included Pecan Grove, Stillman Heights Elementary, Dragons Lane and the existing site of the branch.

City leaders in support of the McDonald Hughes Center campus as the new site have argued this option would provide the largest footprint for new amenities — approximately 45,000 square feet — in addition to the city being able to make the most of its $10 million budget and bond issuance by building the new location on the site of a community center that already offers a wide-range of offerings.

The project will be covered by funding from Elevate Tuscaloosa and a bond issuance from fiscal year 2022.

The original 25,000-square-foot Benjamin Barnes Branch YMCA first opened in 1961 after being built for roughly $105,000. It was made possible through grassroots fundraising efforts and $42,500 in funding from the Warner family.

Momentum in the push for a new location ramped up in January 2021, as Patch previously reported, when the Tuscaloosa City Council approved a $1.5 million deal to purchase both the downtown YMCA location and the Benjamin Barnes Branch.

The city already owned the land and following the purchase of the facilities, committed to one provision requiring a new Benjamin Barnes facility be built, or at least 75% completed, before any new construction is done at the downtown Tuscaloosa branch.

The Tuscaloosa City Council's Public Projects Committee is set to meet at 2:30 p.m. on Tuesday, Aug. 23.

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