Downtown Toronto could get sprawling new YMCA

Amidst condos, office buildings and trendy restaurants, the King-Spadina neighbourhood could be getting a brand new YMCA in the former Water Works building at the corner of Richmond and Brant.

Build Toronto, the city's arms-length real estate corporation, acquired the heritage-designated building in 2014. It intends to sell it to a developer on the condition that any redevelopment includes a YMCA or a related community centre in order to offer affordable recreational programming in the area.

Toronto's chief planner and executive director of the city planning division as well as the general manager of parks, forestry and recreation submitted a report supporting the construction of the YMCA earlier this week. Now, the executive committee will discuss this item on Monday and it'll go before council on September 30.

According to the report, the YMCA could be up to 54,000 square-feet and would include an aquatics centre. The city would pay for two-thirds of this new facility, between $15 and $19 million, while the YMCA would cover the rest.