$12 million Caldwell YMCA to be built by '04

The Caldwell YMCA will be a $10 million to $12 million complex targeted for completion in late 2004, people involved in the project said last week.

To be designed by ZGA Architects & Planners Chartered, Boise, the YMCA will contain three pools, exercise and sports facilities of various kinds, and space for several community groups.

A single-story facility of 85,000 to 90,000 square feet is envisioned, said Art Albanese, a principal at ZGA, officials of which were meeting with community representatives to scope out details of the building’s components.

Carl Woodburn, co-chair of the Caldwell YMCA Steering Committee, said requests for proposals probably would be sent to contractors sometime in January.

Meanwhile, backers are in the process of forming a capital fund-raising team to raise about $7 million for the project, the balance needed on top of a $5 million commitment from the Caldwell Urban Renewal Agency.

Woodburn, owner of Farm & City stores in Caldwell, Nampa, Eagle and Twin Falls, said “we’ve got a person in mind” to head the fund-raising effort, which a feasibility study two months ago indicated could be successful in Caldwell.

Caldwell Mayor Garret Nancolas said the $5 million pledged by Urban Renewal would constitute tax increment financing based on “new growth and expanded growth within the boundaries” of the city’s urban renewal area.

Although the money is “in our budget, this is a little quicker than we had planned, and we probably will have to bond for a couple of years” until sufficient incremental tax revenues become available.

Nancolas called the project “one of the most important events that we’ll ever see in Caldwell,” adding: “These kinds of facilities totally change the complexion of the community … it strengthens the family and changes the picture as far as people looking at economic development.”

The complex is to be built on a 13-acre site on the west side of Indiana Avenue, across the street and slightly south of Caldwell High School. The site was donated by a benefactor who has asked to remain anonymous.

Albanese said preliminary concepts for the building point to a combination of features in the West Family YMCA, in the Boise Research Center, and the downtown Boise YMCA.

“In some respects it will be a clone of the West YMCA, but with some of the better features of the downtown Y,” said Albanese. “It’ll be a one-story facility with a mezzanine, similar to the West Y, and it will contain three pools in the aquatic center.”

Jim Everett, director of the Boise Family YMCA, which has been active in planning the Caldwell Y, said the aquatic center would include a 25-yard lap pool with six or “maybe eight” lanes, a recreational pool with “lots of fun stuff” that would “push the envelope Roaring-Springsish,” and a children’s pool with “lots of toys.”

Having three pools means they can be kept at different temperatures suited to their needs, he and Albanese noted. ZGA has arranged for an “aquatic consultant,” Water Technology Inc., Beaver Dam, Wis., to participate in the design.

The complex is to include gymnasiums and “multipurpose rooms for the sport of the day,” a climbing wall, a racquet ball court, locker facilities, a snack facility and lounge, and community offices that may include adjuncts of the public library and the police department, they said.

Everett said Big Brothers / Big Sisters, the Girl Scouts of America, Success By 6 and the Idaho Migrant Council have voiced an interest in having facilities in the building.

“The Girl Scouts want to be able to have a presence there, with some staff, and hold meetings there – they want the synergy of being in a location where there’s already lots of kids.”

Big Brothers / Big Sisters would like to have an office “where they do intakes” of volunteers, while Success By 6 envisions a parent resource center that would offer information and counseling to parents in “a very non-threatening environment,” he said.

The degree to which the Boise Family YMCA organization may be involved in planning and operating the Caldwell Y has yet to be determined, Everett said. Referring to Caldwell backers of the Y, he said: “It’s mainly Caldwell’s call.”

Meanwhile, he said, several groups in the Wood River Valley – which includes Hailey, Ketchum, Sun Valley and Bellevue – have indicated an interest in building a YMCA there.