Welcome to the 2025 Facility Summit for YMCAs! We are pleased to announce the convening of this year's Summit on October 22nd - 24th. For this, the fifth Facility Summit, we return to the site of the inaugural Summit - New York City - following the delivery of prior, inspired Summits in Chicago, Seattle, and Nashville.
The Facility Summit for YMCAs convenes c-suite staff and volunteers from across North America for three days of inspiration, learning, resource delivery, thought leadership, shared experiences, and content as amassed from the various domains of the built environment of the Y, including: real estate, architecture & design, capital funding, asset management, procurement, and capital planning.
Whether prepared to register for the Summit (space is limited!), or seeking additional information about the Summit, this website will serve as your guide. This website enables easy registration, accommodates pre-Summit tour sign-up, and provides direct links for the making of hotel reservations.
With deep appreciation for the demands upon all of us, as purpose-driven members and agents of the Y, we're hopeful the Summit meets you with opportunities for inspiration, learning, new connections, affirmation, and community.
With any requests and/or needs for support regarding the Facility Summit for YMCAs, simply forward inquiries via email to: gbalpinar@gro-dev.com
We're back, back in a New York mood!…. After productive and stimulating stops in Chicago, Seattle, and Nashville, the Facility Summit for YMCAs returns to the site of the inaugural Summit - the ever-vibrant and ever-welcoming, New York City! With a motto of 'Excelsior', translating to 'ever rising', the State of New York, as well as the City itself, makes for a most fitting and provocative host for the also 'ever rising' YMCA. Always the generator of leadership and new ideas, home to productive institutions bent on purpose and education, and at once the nexus of global business and cultures - New York City seems to blend it all - and day and night. For the audience of the Summit, New York is a crucible and garden for leading edge thinking in community development, design, real estate, finance, business, and health & wellness. It will be both a mirror and a portal - offering both reflection and endless possibility. And the exact setting of the Summit is one of New York's most inspired and stimulating zones - the intersection of the Meatpacking District, West Chelsea, and Greenwich Village. Scattering around us, and within walking distance, will be the High Line, the Little Island, Hudson River Park, the Whitney Museum, Chelsea Market and Hudson Yards. Of course, further beyond lie Central Park and Times Square, SoHo and Wall Street, and Broadway and Brooklyn.
As for the landscape of the YMCA itself, in and surrounding New York is the greatest density of Associations, high-functioning Alliances, and the most diverse array of ages and forms of YMCA centers.
Of course, Gro is always in pursuit of ways to infuse our work and study with some fun, and what better 'laboratories' of food and libation to leverage for rounding-out the experience than those of New York?!
Welcome to the Summit. Welcome to New York!
Space is limited to 150 participants. We encourage making commitments when timely.
Register HereThe Facility Summit for YMCAs is an experiential gathering that unfolds over portions of three days. The Summit blends rich content via a schedule of cadenced sessions, balancing these with curated events and moments for pure entertainment, socialization, and enjoyment. Let's take a glance at the Summit schedule:
The Summit kicks-off Wednesday, October 22nd with pre-summit tours, a welcome reception and dinner program, and concludes with a closing session, on Friday, October 24th, following two days of rich content and thought leadership. The content of the 2025 Facility Summit for YMCAs will consist of an intentional blend of matter on the subjects of YMCA real estate, development, design, architecture, interiors, facility management, capital planning, capital funding, and procurement. The suite of content sessions will take various forms, including panel discussions, presentations by subject matter experts, the sharing of case studies and modes of peer-to-peer learning.
Nine (9) General Sessions emanating from the principal aspects of the built environment of the Y: real estate administration & development, capital funding, architecture & design, capital projects, facility management and procurement
Six (6) micro-sessions providing provocative and powerful leading-edge responses to current and near-term opportunities and challenges unfolding within the built environment of Y.
Hotel Address:
Dream Downtown
355 W 16th Street
New York, New York 10011 United States
Phone Number:
+1 212 229 2559
Summit Booking Rate:
Use this Summit booking link: Hyatt Group Booking
About This Hotel:
Experience all that Chelsea, NYC has to offer from boutique rooms and suites that feature elegant leather and teak accents. Our hotel in the Meatpacking District offers rooms with a host of modern luxuries as well as views of West 16th Street and the dramatic downtown skyline.
For any inquiries, issues with the booking link, or changes to your reservation, please contact Keegan Cross directly.
Keegan Cross
E: keegan@everythingtravelguy.com
C: +1 720-290-6441
Tours will take place Wednesday, October 22nd, beginning at 2pm. The pre-conference tours will provide attendees with an opportunity to explore local sites of interest and gain insights into the unique challenges and opportunities facing YMCAs in the region. Tour space is limited and on a "first come-first served" basis until all spots are filled.
Reserve your spot by registering today.
Explore two modern community anchors that combine athletic facilities with social gathering spaces, showcasing contemporary design aimed at wellness, inclusivity, and neighborhood revitalization.
Visit the PAC's cutting-edge performance spaces for dance, theater, and music. Tour through Lower Manhattan's cultural and memorial heart.
Walk along New York City's iconic elevated park, where adaptive reuse transforms an abandoned rail line into a linear urban landscape blending gardens, art, and architecture with sweeping city views.
Formed to deliver on both the local and enterprise-wide facility initiatives of the North America's cause driven non-profits, Gro provides professional services in the arenas of real estate, architecture, design, procurement, facility management and capital formation.
Gro is rooted in a belief in the power of place – places as center of community, places stimulating personal development, and places for societal impact. Gro envisions elevating it’s clients centers and portfolios to be the most magnetic, sustainable, well-positioned, accessible, safe, and high-functioning places for youth development, health and wellness, and community engagement.