YMCA, church to offer sports, activities at Stoney Point location

CEDAR RAPIDS - Sports and activities will continue at the Stoney Point YMCA that the YMCA of Cedar Rapids Metropolitan Area just sold to Antioch Christian Church.

The organizations announced the partnership in a joint statement Wednesday.

The building, which has been for sale since October, will undergo some upgrades, planned to begin this fall. The church hopes to hold a grand opening in spring 2022.

'The Y has always thrived on partnerships within the community and is looking forward to further developing its relationship with the church in order to continue to serve this area in some capacity,” YMCA CEO and President Bob Carlson said.

Antioch will use the Stoney Point building, 300 Stoney Point Rd. SW, to 'develop a faith community” in southwest Cedar Rapids. The church has locations in Marion at 433 Cross Rd. and in Oelwein.

'We aim to accomplish our strategy with the purchase of the Stoney Point YMCA by offering dynamic weekend services and children's, student and adult programming each weekend and throughout the week,” Antioch Pastor Greg Johnson said.

The sale of the Stoney Point YMCA will not immediately change its availability to Y members and to those in its child care program, according to the release. Over the next several months, the YMCA will work on the changes in the building's operations.

The YMCA declined to reveal the building's sale price, and Antioch's pastor could not be reached. The property is valued at $2,872,700 by the city assessor.

In an announcement on the YMCA's website Friday, Carlson said the sale has been 'an extremely difficult decision.”

'We have had to make many difficult decisions within the last year as we work to recover and reallocate resources within our association to continue to serve the needs of our community,” Carlson said.

The sale comes after a year of financial struggle for the nonprofit, which had to cancel its 2020 Camp Wapsi season due to the coronavirus pandemic. The organization has struggled to refund fees for the canceled camp, which is near Coggon.

YMCA officials declined to say if they have been able to refund all the camp fees or if the sale of the Stoney Point property would help with the refunds.

The YMCA opened a new Marion location in January at 3740 Irish Dr. It closed its Mercy Health Plaza last July to free up resources for other branches better sustained by membership fees.

'Recovery efforts will span years as the YMCA works to reallocate resources to continue to serve the community,” the news release reads.

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