YMCA plans branch in old Peak Fitness site

It will offer array of services at the Robinhood location

By: Fran Daniel | JOURNAL REPORTER
Published: October 10, 2009

The YMCA of Northwest North Carolina said yesterday that it is in final negotiations to lease the former Peak Fitness building on Robinhood Road.

"We hope to be able to make an official announcement very soon," said Mark Bachman, a senior vice president and the chief operating officer for the YMCA.

Peak Fitness and Fitness Management Group filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy July 10 and has since pulled out of the Winston-Salem area. In addition to closing its gym on Robinhood Road in August, Peak also closed its gyms in Clemmons and on Yadkinville and Jonestown roads in Winston-Salem.

YMCA officials hope to turn the 55,000-square-foot building into a full membership branch with such offerings as health and wellness programs, youth programs and Child Watch space. It would be similar in size to many of the YMCA's existing branches.

Bachman said that the Y has long wanted to better serve the Robinhood Road area near Lewisville and Pfafftown.

"A new YMCA in that vicinity is part of our overall capital campaign effort that is currently going on," he said.

The YMCA serves Forsyth, Davie, Stokes, Yadkin and Wilkes counties. It has nine branches, some satellite locations and Camp Hanes.

The organization's overall goal in the current campaign is to raise $5 million.

Other projects that the money is slated for include the new entrance and youth and teen activity center under construction at the Central YMCA on West End Boulevard, and improvements and changes at the West Forsyth Family YMCA on Peace Haven Road in Clemmons.

The YMCA also wants to make additions at Camp Hanes on Camp Hanes Road in King and the Kernersville Family YMCA on West Mountain Street in Kernersville.

YMCA officials don't expect a new Robinhood Road branch to have much effect on the nearby West Forsyth Family YMCA in Clemmons.

Joan Marie Belnap, a vice president and the chief development officer for the YMCA, said that a lot of folks like to travel within a five-mile radius to work out.

fdaniel@wsjournal.com | 727-7366