Great expectations for Pittsford YMCA at ceremonial groundbreaking

One hundred local business and community leaders, dignitaries, funders and a half dozen children were on hand Monday for the ceremonial groundbreaking of the YMCA of Greater Rochester’s new Pittsford facility.

“Woohoo, we made it,” cheered George Romell, YMCA president and CEO, at the groundbreaking, which had been delayed six weeks due to weather.

The $40 million to $45 million structure, on 20 acres of land at  Clover Street and Jefferson Road, has been under way since December and is expected to be completed in October 2019.

YMCA and University of Rochester Medicine announced last week that the two organizations had signed an 11-year agreement in which UR would have a presence in each of the Y’s 17 Rochester-area locations, most significantly in the new Pittsford Y. UR will occupy 15,000 square feet at the new facility.

“It became very apparent to us when we were discussing the possibility of partnering on the Pittsford Y that our missions in the community really overlap pretty significantly,” said Michael Rotondo M.D., CEO of UR Medical Faculty Group, in a recent interview. “The discussion pretty quickly went from what could we do to partner with the Pittsford Y to what could we do to partner across all of the Ys in Monroe County.”

While many details of the YMCA/UR pairing are being worked out, Rotondo said they were planning on having a primary care presence in Pittsford, similar to the Eastside YMCA in Penfield. The facility also will have a wellness center.

“We’ll have other resources there in terms of nutrition counseling, mindfulness and sort of a soup to nuts opportunity for members to come in and either be evaluated for a wellness program or to be monitored or directed through wellness programs,” Rotondo said. “I think it’s going to be a nice opportunity for the people of Pittsford, but I can’t emphasize enough the importance of our commitment to not just work at places like the Eastside Y or Pittsford, but be at Maplewood and Lewis Street and Carlson and the other Ys across the city as well.”

Rotondo said UR does not plan to have physician practices in each of the area’s Ys, but should the need arise, the issue will be revisited. UR team members already have visited each of the 17 locations, as well as the Y’s camps, completing an analysis of what the membership profile is like to get a better feel for what can be offered at each facility.

“We’ve got a whole variety of programs at the university, so it was a matter of working to match those up, come up with a menu of possibilities at each of the different Ys and then lay out a plan over the next several years as to how we can steadily begin to put those programs into the YMCAs,” Rotondo said.

Romell said the Pittsford Y takes the idea of a modern YMCA to a greater level. He envisions multipurpose rooms and common areas where people can gather, a teaching kitchen that can provide food for the senior center during the day and host classes at night, as well as a child care center that can be used for other things on weekends. He calls the facility a “Mega Y.”

Funding for the Y is coming from multiple sources, including a recent $500,000 gift from M&T Bank, as well as more than $10 million from more than 100 individual, corporate and foundation donors. The YMCA also received some support from the State of New York.

“A healthy Y system is good for our community and all of the people that live here,” said Sen. Joseph Robach, R-Greece, at Monday’s groundbreaking. “We’re happy to be partners when we can help and make good things happen, not only for the Y but for the people who use it.”

Romell said the pairing between YMCA and UR seemed like a natural thing and he was excited by the possibility of offering local residents the opportunity—whether they are YMCA members or not—to take part in the many offerings UR will have at the Pittsford Y and elsewhere.

“We have five inner city branches,” he said in a recent interview. “I am doing backflips over the idea that our residents in the city can get these services at their local Y.”

Services may include medical resources via telemedicine, UR’s Eastman Institute for Oral Health SMILEmobile, nurse practitioners, blood pressure screening, heart monitoring, lectures flu clinics and more, Romell said.

“The philosophy of government that Pittsford has enjoyed for more than a century, that makes it the place it is, places quality of life for our residents as the first priority, to make Pittsford the very best place to live, work and raise a family, and to keep it that way, constantly seeking improvement,” Pittsford Supervisor Bill Smith said at Monday’s event. “And what finer symbol of improvement or a stronger contributor to it than (this) magnificent facility.”

Smith said he believes on a personal level that the Y shapes lives and improves communities and that the presence of the Y builds a greater future for the lives it touches.

“I believe and you believe that this is one community of Monroe, and when one of us does well, we all do well, and we all want to support each other,” Monroe County Executive Cheryl Dinolfo said at the groundbreaking. “My mom used to say, if you have health, you have everything. And the Y knows that.”

Bringing together health, activity and community is a “huge win” for everybody, Dinolfo said.

“We’re really excited about it,” Rotondo said. “We think it’s going to be a real value add to the community, and it allows us to make ourselves available to the community in a way that we haven’t been able to be available in the past.”

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