A new city-owned community center in Prairie Village is projected to have higher membership than the current Paul Henson YMCA, but the new facility would still lose nearly $1.4 million in the first five years of operation.
Those were some of the key points that came out of a meeting Tuesday of the city’s finance committee, which unanimously recommended sending the discussion to the full city council for its next meeting, Aug 5.
A potential new $55 million Prairie Village community center — the subject of a years-long conversation to co-locate such a facility with a new Corinth Library branch — would be owned by the city but operated by the Y, leaving the city on the hook for any revenue shortfalls.
The finance committee reviewed the estimated operating costs in a document called a proforma, something that the city council previously asked the Y to draft and present.
City Administrator Wes Jordan said there have been internal conversations about using the Y’s capital contribution — which has dropped since the city council last discussed this topic — to pay for any projected revenue shortfalls in the first five years.
The Y estimates 2K+ accounts
- The Y put together three different estimates that project what a new facility could cost to operate based on specific data from a 2023 city-backed survey that shows how many Prairie Village households are projected to join a new community center.
- The finance committee looked at three different projections — conservative, moderate and aggressive versions — that use a specific number of estimated memberships to forecast costs.
- Mark Hulet, the president and chief executive officer of the Kansas City YMCA, said a “unit” is the number of paying memberships — not the number of individual people using the facility.
- For example, one “unit” could be an individual person or it could be a family of 10 people, he said.
- The conservative cost estimate moving forward to the city council builds a proforma based on 2,017 “units,” which may equate to roughly 5,000 individuals using the facility.
“Under promise and over deliver”
- Hulet told the finance committee that the Paul Henson YMCA’s membership currently includes 730 “units,” or roughly 1,800 people.
- In 2023, the Paul Henson location operated on a $187,000 deficit and is projected to finish 2024 in the red by $202,000, according to numbers Hulet shared with the finance committee Tuesday.
- Under the conservative estimate, a new Prairie Village community center would “ramp up” to 2,017 “units” by its third year — 1,000 “units” in year one and 1,500 “units in year two, Hulet said.
- The conservative proforma shows the new community center operating at a $694,400 deficit in year 1, a $476,922 deficit in year 2 and a $93,686 deficit in year 3.
- Hulet said the YMCA “can do better” than the conservative proforma projections, but he prefers to “under promise and over deliver.”
The Y’s estimated contribution to the project drops
- Hulet told the finance committee that the total contribution the Y anticipates making to a new facility is between $6.75 to $8 million — down from the previously discussed range of $7.5 to $10 million.
- Mayor Eric Mikkelson said that drop is “disappointing,” but that other organizations that could manage such a facility would be unable to contribute anything to a new community center.
- Mikkelson said that the higher the Y’s contribution is, the more likely the community center idea succeeds as a ballot measure.
- This $6.75 to $8 million estimated contribution is the amount that the city could put toward any operational deficit in the first few years instead of toward the cost of actually building the facility.
Committee has mixed feelings about cost estimates
- Councilmember Nick Reddell said he is concerned about the Y’s ability to increase membership by 500 units per year in the first two years, as the conservative cost estimate calls for.
- Reddell said he wants to see what types of programming the Y can offer at a new Prairie Village community center that would attract new members.
- Councilmember Ian Graves said he sees a new Prairie Village community center as a semi-regional facility, attracting people from within city limits and on both sides of the state line.
- Councilmember Cole Robinson said that following the most recent survey results and seeing the proforma, he thinks a city-owned community center “has a very high likelihood of getting to the point” of not costing the city money.
- “You guys are obviously very experienced at doing this, you have deep roots in the community,” Robinson said, speaking to Y officials Tuesday. “And I do believe you can get this to a point where it’s not costing the taxpayer a whole lot of money and maybe even be returning money.”
Next steps:
- The city council will discuss the conservative proforma during the council committee of the whole on Aug. 5.
- The council committee of the whole meeting immediately follows the city council meeting, which starts at 6 p.m. at City Hall, 7700 Mission Rd.
- City staff told the finance committee that future discussions on different configurations and placements for a potential community center will come before the city council at a later date.
Go deeper: Prairie Village still wants public’s input on community center idea — Here’s where things stand
