Johnston YMCA Will Remain Open After Development Plan Falls Through

CHARLOTTE –On the corner of 33rd and Davidson  in NoDa sits a piece of history.

 For Palmer Brown, the Johnston YMCA is a getaway for him and his buddies.

“Everyone talks about Charlotte having all the culture and they want that, and I feel like this was one of the staples of NoDa,” says Palmer.  “The Y is a getaway, it’s a second home. even the staff, just seeing them, the friends we see and play basketball with just mean so much.”

The city announced in may that it was selling the Johnston YMCA property to the Republic Metropolitan Development Group for apartment and retail space at the end of the year.

“Having the chance to see them twice a week means so much they feel like family,” says Brown. “So when they said they were going to shut down it felt like my family was shutting down.”

Today, thanks to current market conditions, that all changed when it was announced  that the YMCA will remain open.

“It was literally like a bomb went off, like the group chat everyone was just like oh my god like I got three phone calls,” Brown said. 

For gym goers like Palmer, he hopes that this piece of history sticks around for years to come.

“We were talking about doing some fundraising. The biggest thing is that people realize this couldn’t last forever and how do we make it last forever.”