The Watertown Family YMCA aspires to be a leader, offering healthy lifestyle programming for all ages while supporting initiatives designed to enhance their position as a family-centered organization accessible to all. When its former downtown YMCA location outgrew its facility, Watertown Family YMCA asked Life Fitness to help them transform a vacant 89,000-sq. ft. building into a family wellness, aquatics and fitness center for residents and neighboring communities. Life Fitness helped them enhance the membership experience by outfitting the new facility with innovative, durable and high-quality equipment that met the diverse needs of the fitness programs and community members.
Partnering for Success Bringing the YMCA vision to life
Life Fitness partnered with the Watertown Family YMCA to create intentional community spaces. This helped differentiate the downtown location from the other branches. Life Fitness advised the YMCA to purchase Hammer Strength Plate-Loaded with a focus on loaded body pieces, as well as ground-based Hammer Strength equipment. This allowed the facility to fulfill the strength-training needs of their exercisers with equipment that allowed for maximum weight distribution. Special attention was paid to minimizing sound bleeding. The result: A thoughtful design that kept noise levels in check, was distinct from other YMCA area offerings and kept its load within safe weight limits.
An Award-winning Facility Serving military families
The Watertown Family YMCA downtown location is close to Fort Drum. Consequently, a high number of military families use the facility. Because of this, the project received a $9 million U.S. Department of Defense grant from the Defense Communities Infrastructure Pilot Program to support Fort Drum’s military families.
Relationships matter A ‘magnificent’ facility
The YMCA-Life Fitness partnership is built on mutual trust, accountability and partnership. The YMCA knew Life Fitness would see them through a challenging build-out. And the Life Fitness sales team brought the project to the finish line with professionalism and strategic thinking. The team couldn’t be happier with the outcome of the facility, which many described as ‘magnificent.’
30+ years of YMCA-Life Fitness partnership
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