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South Shore Y Breaks Ground in Quincy for $30 Million Facility to Open Next Year QUNICY, MA (May 16, 2012) — It’s a vacant field now. But South Shore YMCA leaders promised at a ground breaking Monday that the corner of Coddington and Sea Streets will next year be the site of a vibrant, dazzling, cutting-edge facility. “It’s going to have facilities inside it that no one can even dream of, or perhaps haven’t dreamt of,” said Mark Dickinson, a developer who heads the Y’s Building Committee, “We intend to make this an 18-hour-a-day facility serving the entire community.” Standing next to photographs of the last ground breaking at the site in 1954, YMCA officials ceremonially broke ground on the $30 million project scheduled to be completed in June, 2013. “I can pretty much guarantee you that a year and a half from now, when people are walking through these front doors, they’re going to have an experience that is going to be one of the top Y experiences…in the entire country,” said Dan DeMarco, Chairman of the South Shore YMCA’s Board of Directors. The new Quincy facility will have two floors. The first will feature, among other amenities, an aquatics center with a six-lane pool and steam and sauna rooms. The second floor will feature a field house with an indoor running and walking track. After the new building opens, the old one will be torn down and replaced with a parking lot. South Shore YMCA President Paul Gorman told the crowd gathered under a tent Monday that the project is going to significantly increase the current membership of 11,000 in Quincy. “We look for that to double over the next two years,” he said, “This is going to be an important community asset to the City. Everyone is welcomed at this YMCA. In Quincy alone we give away more than $1.3 million worth of financial assistance, so no one is turned away.” Gorman said the new Y will add 100 jobs. The organization is $5 million off its $15 million fundraising goal. That push is headed by Dave Keefe, first Vice Chair of the Y’s Board, and longtime Board member Alex Clark. Clark, whose great grandfather was involved in the founding of the South Shore Y in the 1890’s and whose grandfather was present at Monday’s ground breaking, said he’s proud to assist in the new push. “We have to build the future,” Clark said. Mayor Thomas Koch said the new YMCA will send a signal about Quincy Center’s forthcoming development. “This is certainly going to be an aesthetic improvement, but also a real sign to the people of the City, and the people who visit here, of the livability of this great community,” he said. ABOUT DICKINSON DEVELOPMENT CORP.
— Patriot Ledger
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