YMCA adds south side facility with purchase of EC Fitness

If you’re the type of person who sets your fitness goals on New Year’s Day, the YMCA of Chippewa Valley has a timely gift for you: Starting January 1, privately owned Eau Claire Fitness will be reborn as the Eau Claire South YMCA.

The fitness center at 3225 Lorch Ave., which until a few years ago was a Gold’s Gym, will become the local YMCA’s third full-service facility at the start of the new year.

Derek White said he met Laurie Powers, owner of Eau Claire Fitness, shortly after becoming president and CEO of the local YMCA a year ago. They talked about their operations and their interest in selling the business, which eventually led to an offer to buy the YMCA.

“The Powers family is a friend and supporter of the YMCA and we greatly appreciate their trust in the Y as good stewards of the business they have put so much passion and energy into building,” White said.

The 50,000-square-foot Eau Claire Fitness, which opened in 2008, offers amenities such as cardiovascular equipment, a weight room, group exercise spaces, a basketball court, a pool, a sauna, child care and more.

Starting January 1, the facility will be available to all YMCA of Chippewa Valley members. Likewise, all Eau Claire Fitness members will become members of the YMCA, White said. They can expect a letter in the near future explaining the change and new fee structure, he added.

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My mentality has always been that the Y is the front porch of the community.

DEREK WHITE

CHIPPEWA VALLEY PRESIDENT AND CEO’S YMCA

White said the purchase of the facility is part of the YMCA’s long-term effort to better serve its 18,000 members and the community as a whole. “My responsibility since I was hired last October is to identify what the long-term plan is for the YMCA of Chippewa Valley,” he said. “Collectively with the staff and volunteers, we are working on what the next 50 to 100 years look like for the organization.”

Other YMCA of Chippewa Valley facilities include the Eau Claire Downtown YMCA (700 Graham Ave.), the Chippewa Falls YMCA (611 Jefferson Ave.), the Menard Tennis Center (1260 Menomonie St.), the L.E. Phillips YMCA Sports Center (3456 Craig Road), as well as Camp Manitou near New Auburn.

White said the local YMCA intends for the Eau Claire South YMCA to be a self-sustaining facility because of the new members it will bring to the organization. Funds for the purchase came from operating funds accumulated over the past few years, he said. White explained that the money did not come from previous capital campaigns to renovate the downtown Eau Claire site or build an entirely new YMCA as part of UW-Eau Claire’s Sonnentag Center development on Menomonie Street (a project from which the YMCA withdrew up in 2019 ).

And the purchase does not indicate that the YMCA plans to leave its downtown Eau Claire facility anytime soon, White added: “We have no intention of abandoning anyone. We want to make sure what we do is strategic and well planned.”

To that end, the YMCA has spent nearly $600,000 over the past two years on maintenance to improve its members’ current facilities.

“My mentality has always been that the Y is the front porch of the community,” added White, who spent more than 20 years working for YMCAs, primarily in the southeastern United States. “Everyone comes, common ground happens and relationships are built. (The purchase) adds another operational center for us.”

Learn more about the YMCA of Chippewa Valley online at ymca-cv.org. Check out Eau Claire Fitness at eauclaire-fitness.com.