The YMCA of San Benito County is looking for a few good
acres
– 15, to be exact.
The YMCA of San Benito County is looking for a few good acres – 15, to be exact.
The YMCA has been searching for property to build a new state-of-the-art facility since August, when negotiations for a 23-acre site near Marguerite Maze Middle School fell through. The YMCA’s board of directors had been in negotiations for 19 months to acquire the property but now have to start from scratch.
“There is certainly property that people are willing to sell or donate that we aren’t aware of,” said Lou Bettencourt, executive director of the YMCA of San Benito County.
The original plan – the Community Square project – involved building a much-larger YMCA along with a new library and a center for the arts.
The project still stands, Bettencourt said, but the first step is to find a new location.
The ‘Y’ recently placed a classified newspaper ad requesting 15 acres of land for a “reasonable price – reasonable terms.”
“I think it’s an opportunity for us to get beyond our current knowledge of available property,” Bettencourt said.
The YMCA was banking on the property near Maze Middle School and even had a non-binding contract with property owner Steve Rosatti. But negotiations hit a bump when Rosatti wanted the library and the YMCA to be built on the same property, and the YMCA could not guarantee that.
Negotiations fell apart when a dispute erupted over a deleted clause in the non-binding contract for building both the YMCA and the library on the property.
