2 days ago
YMCA plans downtown Dallas child care center
Downtown Dallas is on track to get a new child care center but its opening date depends on YMCA Metropolitan of Dallas fundraising.
Why it matters: Dallas-Fort Worth has the highest child care gap among Texas metros, per a Bipartisan Policy Center analysis that measures the difference between the potential need for child care and the number of available spots.
About 13,000 Dallas-area children are not within reasonable driving distance to a childcare facility with availability, the analysis says.
State of play: The YMCA is collaborating with the nonprofit ChildCareGroup to open a two-story licensed childcare center at the T. Boone Pickens YMCA on Akard Street.
The 25,000-square-foot facility will accommodate 304 kids from 6 months old to 6 years old, YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas CEO Curt Hazelbaker tells Axios.
The ChildCareGroup will care for the children under 2 years old and the YMCA would care for the older ones.
The latest: The child care center will cost somewhere between $3.5 million and $4 million to build, Hazelbaker says. The YMCA has secured $2 million so far from Dallas County and funds from the nonprofit.
The intrigue: Many workers have told their employers they prefer to have child care closer to where they work instead of where they live, Hazelbaker says.
Dallas County and some businesses nearby may decide to subsidize some of the child care center fees as a perk for their employees.
Flashback: The T. Boone Pickens YMCA opened in 1982 in a downtown building that was once a bank and parking garage.
The YMCA considered selling the building in 2023 because it was getting costly to repair but decided to take it off the market.
What they did: Dallas County officials approached the YMCA about the idea of opening a child care center in the building to help county employees who work in the area.
The center would also create a new revenue stream for the larger YMCA facility. "T. Boone Pickens is a very large building that we don't use all of, and so we were intrigued by the idea," Hazelbaker says.
The big picture: Dallas-Fort Worth's booming population has kept the YMCA of Metropolitan Dallas busy trying to entice more people to use their YMCA.
The Waxahachie Family YMCA broke ground this week on the first phase of its $10.7 million expansion that includes a park with a trail, a basketball court, a playground, pickleball courts, outdoor fitness spaces and a shaded pavilion.
The Park South Family YMCA is scheduled to open in South Dallas next week about a mile from Fair Park.
