What's next for Steele Creek YMCA, its partners after location announces closure? ...Middle East

CHARLOTTE, N.C. (QUEEN CITY NEWS) -- The Steele Creek community will soon lose its local YMCA branch. 

The YMCA of Greater Charlotte announced it will not be renewing the lease for its health and wellness facility located within the Ayrsley community. 

Moving forward, the YMCA said it plans to refocus its efforts through longstanding partnerships with Central Steele Creek Presbyterian Church and Christ the King Church. 

"There is a lot of people and a lot of need. There is also a lot of people desiring a Y. There is also a lot of other places to work out,” Steele Creek YMCA board member Craig Bollinger said. 

Bollinger described the YMCA as not exactly family-centered. Right now, its main purpose is a facility used for getting in a workout. 

"The goal and hope and dream of the board out in the Steele Creek area was to eventually get a family YMCA in this region. That's a much bigger ball game than what was currently at Ayrsley," he said. 

After two decades of renting the space, the YMCA of Greater Charlotte is moving out, and will now be turning its attention to ongoing partnerships with two local churches. 

"The Y runs the program, we just intercept and try to make it be better." 

On top of being on the Steele Creek YMCA Board, Bollinger is also the lead pastor at Christ the King Church, about five miles away on South Tryon Street. 

For about 15 years, he says the Y has been renting space on their campus for afterschool programs and summer camps.

While the Y will continue to hold these programs, the church’s executive director of campus operations says they are also willing to absorb more programs, like workout classes.  "We have actually brainstormed ideas in the past of how we can bring programming like that onto this campus and make it a reality,” said Michelle Yorick, Christ the King’s executive director of Campus Operations. 

With the inevitable closing of the Steele Creek Y location, Bollinger says the local Y organization has two options: It could continue to disperse programs throughout the region or build a brand-new center. 

While he says the church is more than willing to absorb programs, he says they are also open to the idea of the Y building a new center on the church’s 20-acre property. 

"The Y's role as a nonprofit... what's its priorities? Because those are things that they will be thinking about in 2025,” Bollinger said. “We don't want to rush that process for them from the church’s side.  We want to say, 'Go do your work and come back to us and let us know a little bit more of how we can serve with you.’” 

The Steele Creek facility is set to close its doors on Jan. 31, 2025. 

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