John Lindsay family donates $3M for new YMCA facility
The family of Nova Scotia businessman and developer John Lindsay Sr. is donating $3 million to the YMCA capital campaign to help build a new facility in Halifax.
The new Y is scheduled to be completed by 2018 and will be constructed where the old CBC Radio building is currently located on Sackville Street.
"We really, really believe in the Y and in renewing the Y,” said John Lindsay Jr., president of East Port Properties.
“I've been volunteering for 30 years, and most of my career I've wondered how we're going to be able to develop the new facility."
John Lindsay Jr. announced Thursday evening he is donating $1 million, his mother the same amount. Another $1 million will come from the estate of the late John Lindsay Sr., who died in 2006.
The new 70,000 square foot facility will cost $30 million and the capital campaign is aiming to raise $9 million of that.
"It's going to take our entire community getting on board and getting involved," said Bette Watson-Borg, chief executive of The YMCA of Greater Halifax/Dartmouth.
The new facility will be called the John W. Lindsay YMCA and will include an aquatic centre, gymnasium, indoor track, strength and cardiovascular conditioning spaces, program studios, change rooms and a licensed childcare centre.
"It's prime location, which is right between the schools, the hospitals, the business district, the Public Gardens and with all the condos that are going up around it, it's just going to be a magical place for all of us," said Stuart MacLean, chair of the YMCA board.
The facility will replace the old South Park YMCA, which closed in the spring. The site is being redeveloped by Southwest Properties and Streamliner Properties Fund LP for mixed use.
