The Y’s new health services center combines cardio and weight machines that had been scattered across two floors. Below, Claire Donohue works out under the guidance of personal trainer Erin Kauri. (Photos by Stacie Fanelli; click to enlarge)
The most extensive interior overhaul of the Red Bank Community YMCA facility in a decade has concluded without the operation missing a beat.
Begun in March, the $1.2 million job occurred even as many of the Y’s 8,000 members continued to work out, often in cramped quarters.
Gone are the 43-year-old front doors, which were attached to a non-functioning motor that made entering the building a workout in itself. They’ve been replaced with automatic doors.
Also new: the lobby, which has been enlarged to include a coffee-bar lounge; a doubled-in-size children’s play area; and spiffed-up locker rooms and steam rooms.
The centerpiece of the makeover, though, is the third-floor health center, where some 90 cardio and weight-resistance machines have been gathered in a unified area. Previously, the gear was divided between the third floor and the basement level.
Up next: a new air-handling system the pool areas. That’ll occur in August, says Andrea Plaza. Members who are used to an annual two-week pool shutdown for emptying, cleaning and refill will only have to extend their absences by an additional two weeks. The main Bodman pool and the heated Huber pool will both open in time for fall programs, which begin the day following the Labor Day break, Plaza said.
The overall cost of the project: $1.9 million, which was financed by the sale of property to the Monmouth County Parks System. The land is in Marlboro, where the Y still operates Camp Arrowhead.
After that, the Y plans an addition of two swimming pools and a facade makeover that will cost $8 million to $10 million. No start date for that project, which engendered controversy and a now-settled lawsuit against the borough, has been decided.
“Fundraising is really the next step,” Plaza said, adding that about $2 million has already been raised.
