Fundraising for new Marion fitness facility kicks off

MARION - A planned multimillion-dollar fitness facility to be built in Marion received one of its biggest contributions Thursday with Farmers State Bank pledging half a million dollars to the project.

An 89,000-square-foot YMCA facility will be built in Marion on Tower Terrace Road, replacing the community's current facility, which is twice as small and was built in 1963, when the city's population was 12,000.

With about 40,000 people living in Marion now, the city needed a new facility and preliminary estimates show it to cost $19.5 million. The city of Marion contributed $6.5 million to the project and it's estimated to open in fall of 2017 with construction beginning next spring.

'Just considering where the population is growing in Marion, location wise and the number of people we have in Marion, (the current facility) isn't sufficient, and we want to expand it,” said Kim Jass-Ramirez, the director of mission advancement and healthy living for the YMCA of the Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Area.

The building will be on 13 acres of the Tower Terrace Road extension and Winslow Road in Marion. The new YMCA will serve residents in Hiawatha, Robins, Cedar Rapids and rural communities surrounding Marion, as well as Marion residents. It will be a multipurpose facility designed to be a social hub in the community.

Tower Terrace Road was picked as the location for because it's predicted to be the future of Marion in terms of further development in that area, and is centrally located within the city, Jass-Ramirez said.

'It also gives us access to surrounding communities,” she said.

Fundraising for the project is in the beginning stages, she said, with the donation from Farmers State Bank 'setting the pace and setting the bar for other organizations and people to contribute.”

Farmers State Bank has six locations, including its main facility in Marion.