Downtown Mississauga YMCA sold to developer in multi-million dollar real estate deal

Thestar.com
March 23, 2021

Mississauga’s downtown is set to lose a longtime staple of the area.

The YMCA in downtown Mississauga has been sold to real estate development company HBNG Holborn Group for $90 million and will close by the end of 2025.

According to a spokesperson from the YMCA, selling the facility will help keep the organization "financially healthy" through uncertainties brought by the COVID-19 pandemic.

"We had to make a hard choice to improve our financial sustainability to allow us to continue serving all of our communities across the GTA, including Mississauga," said Nora Gorman, vice-president of marketing and communications with YMCA of Greater Toronto.

Holborn agreed to allow the YMCA to operate at 325 Burnhamthorpe Rd. W. until December 2025 as part of the deal. Gorman said the YMCA is committed to having a presence in downtown Mississauga and will look for other locations in the area before the facility shuts down.

When fully operational, the downtown YMCA has child care, fitness and swimming programs.

HBNG Holborn Group has bought the YMCA's 4.5-acre site and building at 325 Burnhamthorpe Rd. W. and intends to build a mixed-use development there. | HBNG Holborn Group photo

James Stevenson, planning and development vice president for Holborn, said the YMCA site is a rare find and that the company is planning a mixed-use development with "multiple towers" and ground-level retail.

"We're still in early stages in terms of designing what that might look like and we want to make sure that whatever we propose to the city is going to fit well," he said.
The YMCA has several other locations in the city offering a range of services including child care and employment and family support services, but the downtown facility, which opened in 1989, is the only fitness facility.

Initially the YMCA was taking offers to buy the parking lot of the facility. According to a brochure for the sale, the buyer would have been obligated to build around 200 spaces to replace parking for the YMCA facility.

The land is part of Mississauga’s city centre zoning and has a number of permitted uses, including offices, apartments, places of worship and hotels.

The area surrounding the YMCA is also anticipated to see a big boom in population with thousands of new residential units being built downtown in coming years.