AVON — Town council members here have signed a memorandum of understanding with the YMCA to lease 10 acres of land at the new Hendricks Regional Health YMCA for use as a public park that will include open playing fields and walking paths.

The lease will be for 15 years with an annual lease payment of $133,000 to the YMCA. According to the agreement, property taxes will not be used for the lease payments; the food and beverage tax fund will be the primary source of payment.

“This has been a long process,” Town Manager Tom Klein said. “We have been going back and forth with the YMCA and the hospital, trying to figure out how to partner with them and do something. It’s going to be a great asset for Avon.”

Eric Ellsworth, president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Indianapolis, said this was a positive move forward.

“It was about a year ago when we were here in front of the town council talking about this idea,” Ellsworth said. “It’s a favorable construction climate right now. The combination of the successful fundraising and the construction climate allowed both ends to meet and now we are able to move forward with this project.”

Dennis Dawes, president of Hendricks Regional Health, said he is also pleased with the partnership.

“I am tremendously enthused by the town of Avon’s support of the project and obviously the YMCA and the hospital,” Dawes said. “We have all three worked together on this and in getting it completed. We’ll have the facility ready for the community and it will be terrific.”

According to a press release from the town, there is a need for the park land in an “underserved area” of Avon that will have more than 1,600 homes within walking or biking distance. The park will be developed and maintained by the YMCA and the restrooms inside the YMCA will be open to park users during regular hours.

The memorandum of understanding contains additional benefits to Avon citizens such as an annual YMCA programming coupon of $50 for each family that resides within the town, a free community night for residents of the town, a free teen night each month, and free public meeting space.

Council members Charlie Dorton and Mike Rogers have been influential in moving the project along.

“We are excited to complete the first phase of this process,” Dorton said. “The vision of having a YMCA in Avon started some time ago and to see the vision start to become a reality is exciting.”

Rogers added, “The impending contract will contain mutual considerations that will be both beneficial and legally enforceable on both parties.”

The Hendricks Regional Health YMCA is projected to create 325 jobs and more than $500,000 in state and local taxes annually. It is expected that the facility will see 450,000 visits each year and 12,000 members.

The facility will include a 122,000 square-foot Healthy Lifestyle Center with 55,621 square feet for the YMCA and 66,711 square feet for Hendricks Regional Health.

Klein said the agreement is comparable to a deal that the town of Fishers made with the YMCA six or seven years ago.

“It’s so successful that they are already building on to it because they have run out of room,” he said of the Fishers project. “That’s the kind of success that they have had there and that’s the kind of success that I anticipate having here.”

The Hendricks Regional Health YMCA will be west of County Road 900 East on the north side of U.S. 36. Seventy-five percent of the fundraising goal has already been met.

“The community stepped forward in probably the toughest economic time in any of our lifetimes and continued to be generous to the project,” Ellsworth said. “We were able to raise the required funds to get started with the construction. We still continue to raise funds throughout the 18-month construction period and hopefully we will raise the amount to complete the job. We’re very optimistic.”

A groundbreaking ceremony is anticipated by late November for a grand opening in the spring of 2011.

For more information or to make a contribution, call Mary Beth Carmichael at 484-9622.



ryan.palencer@flyergroup.com