ROME — It was March 12, 2020, and the YMCA of the Greater Tri-Valley was enjoying its best year ever.

The organization had a robust membership of 9,200 and operated 27 before-school and after-school programs. It also had the opportunity to plan for an even better future on available land on Floyd Avenue that would bring the Y’s offerings close to the 7,000 people working in the nearby Griffiss Business and Technology Park, recalls CEO Hank Leo.

“We explored what that might look like,” he says. In the works since 2018, the organization had planned to build a new 42,000-square-foot building on Floyd Avenue to replace its aging building on West Bloomfield Street.

On March 12, the outlook was bright. “The next day, the whole thing changed,” Leo recalls.

First, schools closed, which shuttered the before- and after-school programs, which supported 400 children and generated $1 million in revenue.

“Then the next day all the businesses closed,” Leo says. The YMCA of the Greater Tri-Valley closed along with them for a short time before reopening as an essential child-care center for five months. It furloughed 250 of the 260 people on staff.

The YMCA gave its 9,200 members a choice — keep their membership, put it on hold, or terminate their membership, and 5,200 of those members chose to end their YMCA membership.

“But 4,800 stayed with us,” Leo says. They even brought lawn chairs and held socially distanced gatherings in the parking lot, craving that interaction with others.

For Leo, who always knew the value of the organization, that really drove home its importance to the community it serves.

That’s why when the cost of building a new facility kept rising, from an initial $16 million to $23 million as the pandemic continued, he and his fellow leaders at the organization knew that building a new facility was not the best path forward for an organization so vital to the community.

In September 2024, the YMCA of the Greater Tri-Valley announced it would no longer move forward with the project. While it had raised some funds from generous donors, it learned it would not receive a hoped-for $2 million New York State Home and Community Renewal grant.

“That’s when we kind of shifted gears,” Leo says. YMCA leadership met with members at several town halls to talk about a new plan. The focus now is on renovating its existing building at 301 West Bloomfield St., which serves a current membership of 7,100.

“We’re going room by room, and we’re repurposing each of the spaces,” Leo says. The organization has enough funds to cover renovations underway on the second floor. Work has included updated electrical infrastructure and equipment for the cardio room, transforming the former personal training room into a spin studio, and converting golf-simulator space into a multifunction area for personal training and cross training.

A donation of both paint and labor from Sherwin-Williams helped transform the facility’s gym into a brighter, more inviting space, Leo adds. The YMCA will refinish the gym floors and install a new curtain divider later this summer.

The building will get a new roof and HVAC system, thanks to $3.4 million in state funding secured by Assemblywoman Marianne Buttenschon.

Leo is hopeful the YMCA of the Greater Tri-Valley can begin tackling first-floor renovations next spring. The first floor includes the swimming pool, locker rooms, and childcare wing.

While it wasn’t easy backpedaling from the announcement of a new building, the YMCA’s membership has been supportive of the decision, he notes.

Samantha Petschauer joined the YMCA as its Rome branch executive right as it was switching gears away from a new building, but that didn’t phase her.

“I didn’t come for a building,” she says. “I came for a mission.”

Recalling how much the YMCA has meant to her family personally, she is confident the renovated building will have that same impact on generations to come.

“We are much more than a gym and swim,” she says. “We are trying to help families grow. We are trying to help our community thrive.”