EAST RUTHERFORD -- Jim Kirkos, CEO of the Meadowlands Regional Chamber of Commerce, remembers sending his son to swimming lessons at the local YMCA.
They took place in a "makeshift pool" in the back of a tractor-trailer.
The Meadowlands Area YMCA has been known as the "Y without walls" since its founding in 1920, operating programs in rented spaces across the 20 towns it serves. That began to change Thursday, when the YMCA started transforming a practice facility once used by the NBA's former New Jersey Nets into the first full-service community center in its nearly 100 year history.
"This redesigned facility secures the future for the Meadowlands YMCA, ensuring that thousands of men, women and children will continue to learn and grow at the Y in the century to come," Jane A. Egan, CEO of the Meadowlands Area YMCA, said.
The YMCA had purchased a building at 235 Murray Hill Parkway in 2013, but it required an extensive and expensive renovation. In 2015, Rich Branca, president of his own property management company and a supporter of the Meadowlands YMCA, let the organization know that tenants of his were leaving a building just up the road at 390 Murray Hill Parkway that might suit their needs better.
That tenant was the Nets, who were leaving the practice facility for their new home in Brooklyn. The YMCA jumped at the chance, selling the building at 235 Murray Hill Parkway and signing a lease with Branca under generous terms, Egan said.
The YMCA is leaving the two practice courts intact and plans to overhaul the rest of the building into a 83,200-square-foot community center that will house 400 programs for 23,000 local residents. Aside from the courts, the center will include a day care center, exercise and dance studios, theater spaces, a rock-climbing wall and a meeting space.
That first phase should open in 2017. The plan is for the YMCA to work on a second phase--a 9,600-square-foot aquatic center with a competition pool.
Ron Simoncini, chairman of the Meadowlands Area YMCA board of directors, said the YMCA is about $2.5 million away from building phase two. Simoncini thanked the many supporters of the project for their help, and said the community would reap the rewards.
"We have 250,000 people in our catch area," Simoncini said. "Those people are dying for a YMCA. And they'll be so thrilled when we open, so it's a great moment of anticipation."
Myles Ma may be reached at mma@njadvancemedia.com. Follow him on Twitter @MylesMaNJ. Find NJ.com on Facebook.