When then-County Executive Marc Molinaro announced plans for what would be called the “Youth Opportunity Union,” or YOU, in 2020, it seemed like things were finally looking up for the old YMCA on Montgomery Street. The building had sat vacant since 2009 and was structurally falling apart.
Promising a “soaring” community center, Molinaro signed a contract with the City of Poughkeepsie to purchase the Y, tear it down, and build the YOU. Dutchess County agreed to allocate $25 million for the project within six months. But five years on, Democratic County Comptroller Dan Aymar-Blair says it allocated just $8.5 million (all from its ARPA funds) and spent even less, roughly $4.5 million.
“I think there was a lot of good intentions here, but I think there were some rose-colored glasses,” he says.
That money was largely used to tear down the YMCA in 2023 and plan the new structure. But today, it’s still an empty lot in a downtown part of Poughkeepsie that city officials are trying to revitalize.
City leaders did not return a request for comment from WAMC, but relations between Poughkeepsie and Dutchess County have been tense as of late, with the city threatening to sue over the county’s decision move forward with a different set of plans: a homeless shelter on Oakley Street.
“We started to hear from some residents in the city of Poughkeepsie who were asking, ‘You can move mountains to build a jail and homeless shelter in our community, but whatever happened to our community center?’” asks Aymar-Blair.
The comptroller says the YOU ultimately fell victim to poor planning and high hopes. Following community input sessions in 2021 and 2022, he says an expansive design for the site came with an estimated price tag of $165 million.
“There were tons of great ideas, but there were tons of great ideas," he adds. "People wanted a commercial kitchen where kids could learn how to cook, and there was a blackbox theater, and there was a rock-climbing wall and all of these things. The actual request to the architect was to build a cathedral. Why did we have to go so big?"
Aymar-Blair says fundraising the rest of the project was likely unrealistic, especially amid the COVID-19 pandemic. Each time county leadership turned over, the YOU’s design got smaller. Former County Executive William O’Neill, a Republican, announced in 2023 that he was working on a more economical YOU that scrapped some amenities and reduced the size of others, like the Olympic-sized swimming pool.
Current County Executive Sue Serino, also a Republican, put the YOU on hold last year, and the county legislature reallocated the remaining ARPA funds it had set aside to other projects. In a statement to WAMC, Serino says she was “clear-eyed” about the YOU’s challenges when she took office, adding in part: “Together with community partners, we are continuing to explore options for the development of the bricks and mortar YOU – with the goal of a final design that meets community needs within economic realities.”
In the meantime, the county issued $250,000 of grants to youth-centric programs and nonprofits this year. Out of 14 total awards, six of the recipients are in Poughkeepsie.
Aymar-Blair says the latest brick-and-mortar plan for the YOU is a roughly $40 million aquatic center with a “wing for youth services.”
“That’s obviously a very, very different take on the original vision here, and certainly a different take on the original promises made to the community," he notes.
He says the county has received $11 million in state and federal grants for the proposal.
As for the original contract, the report finds Dutchess County failed to deliver on spending for the YOU, on its timeline, and on the site’s maintenance. Aymar-Blair says Poughkeepsie could buy the property back — but the contract stipulates it would need to pay Dutchess County for everything it’s spent so far.
He says there’s a lot of lessons to learn from the situation.
“What I encourage is to never jump into purchasing property, and never jump into a new project without an extensive plan and making sure you can succeed — especially if you’re making promises to the City of Poughkeepsie about a property that had been blight for 10 years," says Aymar-Blair. "After five years and nearly $5 million in COVID relief funds, all we have is an overgrown vacant lot, and one that’s now known for drug activity instead of youth programs.”
Aymar-Blair is expected to present his report to the Poughkeepsie Common Council at its Tuesday meeting, starting at 6:30 p.m. in City Hall.
