YMCA of Southern Maine will close one of its four branches for good
Courtesy / YMCA of Southern Maine
The YMCA of Southern Maine's branch in New Gloucester, at Pineland Farms, will permanently close Sept. 2.
The YMCA of Southern Maine, which provides almost countless fitness and health programs at four brick-and-mortar branches across the region, will permanently close one of them on Sept. 2.
The Y’s Pineland Farms branch in New Gloucester, at 25 Campus Drive, will shutter as the nonprofit pivots “from a facility-based model to a community-based approach,” President and CEO Helen L. Breña wrote in a letter to members Monday morning.
The pandemic has changed the way the people want to interact, she said, affecting operations at YMCA facilities nationwide. During the early weeks of the public health crisis, all of the southern Maine branches suspended their in-person programming.
“We are committed to continuing our service to New Gloucester — albeit in different settings — and are exploring possibilities for YMCA programming at locations throughout the Gray-New Gloucester area,” Breña said.
The Y may offer local programming such as health classes at medical offices and school-based child care, she added.
“We will be reaching out to our partners to better understand the current needs and to explore possibilities.”
Employees of the Pineland Branch are being offered jobs at the YMCA of Southern Maine’s other three branches, in Biddeford, Freeport and Portland.
The Y’s decision to leave Pineland Farms comes as the 5,000-acre multiuse complex, which once housed a school for Mainers with intellectual disabilities, attracts new commercial tenants. They include Unity College, which on Aug. 15 plans to open its new Technical Institute for Environmental Professions in 33,000 square feet of space on the campus.
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