The YMCA of Northern Rock County is unveiling “135 & Beyond”—an ambitious project aimed at modernizing the Y’s 99-year-old facility in downtown Janesville, alongside a host of other strategic plans.
The Y announced the project Monday, saying its name is a nod to the Y’s almost 135 years of operations in Rock County.
YMCA of Northern Rock County CEO Angie Bolson says the Y is looking inward at how to tackle what she calls an “urgent need” for repairs in one of the historic wings at the Y’s downtown Janesville location at 54 S. Franklin St.
The Y says visitor rates at both the downtown facility and the Parker YMCA in Milton exceed both regional and national averages for YMCA facilities.
Bolson says that comes as the Y continues to see a boom in membership in Janesville and at the Parker YMCA, which opened in 2013 at Milton’s Cross Ridge Park.
The downtown Janesville Y also will have a rare opportunity to expand without major new construction onsite. That’s because the Boys & Girls Club of Janesville will be vacating an annex attached to the downtown Y where it’s been a tenant and part-owner for years.
The Boys & Girls Club is launching construction this month on a new youth facility at a site it bought from the city of Janesville on South Jackson Street on the city’s south side. The project has been in the works several years and could be complete as early as mid-2026.
Bolson says all those factors signal to the Y’s board of directors and executive leadership that the time is ripe for the YMCA of Northern Rock County to build for the future.
“‘135 & Beyond’ will translate those insights into action helping us modernize our spaces, improve accessibility, and expand key programs for the people of Northern Rock County,” Bolson said in a statement.
Under emerging plans that the Y has released, 135 & Beyond would focus on enhancing building layouts and green space to usher in a boost in programming with a focus on improved access for families.
Bolson tells Big Radio that a core idea is for the Y to find some adaptive reuse of unused or underused spaces, such as the top two floors of the original, 1926 building. Those floors house some of the Y’s former dormitories from an era when YMCAs operated in part as men’s rooming houses.
The Y’s board is considering the idea of conversion of some of that space into apartments.
The Y says it would also work to cultivate new revenue streams to keep its two locations self-sustaining, while offering affordable access to people of all income levels.
Although the Y in downtown Janesville has been added onto several times in its 99-year history, the YMCA of Northern Rock County’s last large-scale expansion came in 2013, when it opened the Parker Y in Milton – the capstone project at Cross Ridge Park on the city’s south end.
The Milton Y has seen recent growth in its before-school and after-school programs for youths, alongside organic growth in membership at both its main locations. Under emerging plans, the Y could acquire 10 acres of additional open space from the city of Milton. The Y also is examining its Milton facility to see how it might meet continued growth and emerging community needs.
The YMCA of Northern Rock County has not talked about what it might spend under plans to modernize its Janesville facility.
It’s likely that any modernization would have a price tag that’s significantly more beefy than the downtown Janesville Y’s 1967 expansion, during the boom days of the former General Motors Janesville Assembly plant. The 1960s reboot cost $800,000 at the time. The Y says it was a bid to grow membership at the time from about 850 members to 2,500.
Last year, some building upgrades at the Y linked to accessibility cost the Y about $600,000. It’s an example of mounting costs in an aging building. Bolson says the aim would be to find ways to leverage underused parts of the building with different uses that might generate more revenue. She says that in turn could offset the cost of operating out of a large-scale, aging facility.
She says adaptive reuse is not an absolute financial necessity, but it could help the Y to fund new programs and initiatives while keeping the center affordable for users.
The Y says it plans several of what it calls “reshaping sessions” from now through June to tap past board members, donors, and other partners on potential ideas and priorities that could come under 135 & Beyond.
