Despite speaking on Super Bowl Sunday, Dan Pile chose not to say the Northeast YMCA will be a “Super Y” after a major redevelopment on that Roebuck campus.

His hope, Pile said, is that the redevelopment will be the new norm, the standard for all YMCAs.

“Actually, what I believe will happen is this will become a prototype of future YMCAs,” said Pile, the president and CEO of the YMCA of Greater Birmingham. “We’re not the only provider but we’ve convened in bringing in other providers. I really believe this represents the future of the YMCA, especially here in Birmingham.”

The Northeast YMCA redevelopment is a broad effort to aid several aspects of the Birmingham community. When completed, the project will include:

• 22 new Habitat single-family homes.
• A 10,000-square foot premier pediatric health center.
• A YMCA youth, family and community center.
• An early learning center.
• Outdoor playgrounds and water park.
• Community gardens and a food distribution center.

The Jefferson County Commission provided a key piece to the puzzle to keep the project on schedule as it last week allotted $1.87 million in American Rescue Plan Act funds to make up for a shortfall brought about by inflation.

The Y began considering what needed to be included in the project. That analysis was enhanced by the pandemic, which brought previously existing community struggles into plain sight.

“My board chair always said, ‘Don’t let a pandemic go to waste,’” Pile said. “What we did is we leaned in more closely to the community and we learned about the mental health disparities. That was the most prominent feature that we learned out of the COVID experience.

“(The pandemic) allowed us to think through the project even more deeply,” Pile said, “and helped us create a more robust and bold plan that’ll serve the community for a long time.”

Board Chair Teresa Shufflebarger said the Y is “addressing those wraparound services that support families in being successful and support children as they are growing up. They’re (children are) our future and an investment in those children is a worthwhile investment.

“This is transformational,” Shufflebarger continued. “This is foundational as we are investing in families. It is a continued and sustained investment in families.”

District 1 Commissioner Lashunda Scales said she and her fellow Jefferson County Commissioners “could not wait” to support the YMCA project, “primarily because it is one of the first of its kind in the nation that will be in this Jefferson County community.”

Scales said she was especially enthused about the project because she has been investing in that branch of the YMCA for 14 years. But the impact of the project will stretch well beyond Roebuck and Huffman, she said, noting that parts of four county commission districts – more than 75% of the county – will be impacted.

Scales said the county stepped in to help the Y deliver on a promise to complete the project by December 2024 after breaking ground in September 2023.

“It actually fits the timeline of all our construction companies,” Pile said. “We’ve been very careful not to over promise. The only thing that will get in the way is weather.”

Scales called the project a comprehensive approach to long-standing problems.

“The dirt that you see behind me now transforms in just a few months into homes where you have bodies of people and their children, coming here and making this place their home,” the commissioner said. “Here’s a big delivery (to eastern Birmingham). This is a win-win for everyone that is involved.

“This addresses all the needs,” Scales continued, “from the parents who are looking for gainful employment to making sure they have housing to making sure they have to proper healthcare. This is what this project will do.”