Penn Hills has agreed to buy the former YMCA building on Frankstown Road, with municipal officials hoping to turn the long-idle facility into a new recreation center for the community. Councilmember Alan Waldron said the purchase price for the building would run $1.3 million.
The deal, first reported by WPXI, would put the municipality in control of a property that has sat largely dormant since the YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh pulled out of the building years ago. Penn Hills is also planning a town hall to lay out the project for residents, though officials have not yet locked in a date for that meeting, according to the same report.
A Building With a Long Recreational History
Before it went dark, the Frankstown Road facility was a fixture for local families. The building had 950 active memberships along with a gym, an indoor track, weightlifting equipment, classrooms, a baseball field, a picnic area and a child care facility, according to a report from archive.triblive.com. Those figures describe the YMCA's operations before it closed and are not a current snapshot of the property.
The YMCA of Greater Pittsburgh at the time said shutting down its Penn Hills, Robinson and Wilmerding branches would save the organization $1 million, the outlet reported. Y officials pointed to delayed repairs and upgrades across the three buildings that added up to millions of dollars, with operating costs outpacing the annual deficit. The Penn Hills and Wilmerding locations were slated to close permanently on Aug. 31, per that same reporting.
An Earlier Deal That Didn't Stick
This isn't the first time the Frankstown Road property has changed hands since the YMCA left. Monroeville Assembly of God had once expected to close on the building by early 2019 with plans to convert it into a church, the outlet's earlier coverage noted. A later report indicated the church had closed on the property for $1.1 million, including many assets the YMCA left behind, though that transaction's long-term outcome isn't addressed in current reporting.
County real estate records previously assessed the facility and its property at $1.3 million, the same figure Waldron now cites for the municipality's purchase. It isn't clear from available information who currently owns the building or what condition it's in today, and the municipality has not released a renovation budget, construction timeline or funding source for turning the space into a recreation center.
What Happens Next
For now, the scope of the project remains undefined. Penn Hills has not specified which recreation programs, amenities or services would carry over from the old YMCA or be added new, and the promised town hall has yet to receive a confirmed date. Residents curious about the details will likely have to wait for that public meeting to get a fuller picture of what the municipality envisions for the Frankstown Road site.
