Renovations planned for the Cass County Family Y include windows from the ground floor to the roof line on much of the building's exterior along East Broadway in Logansport. Image courtesy Cass County Family Y
The Cass County Family Y has reached its renovation goals, thanks to two Logansport natives who’ve moved on to the Indianapolis area.
The Michael and Jody Petrie family has pledged $100,000 toward the Y’s campaign to renovate the 1967 building at 905 E. Broadway.
“Jody and I are proud to call Logansport our hometown,” Petrie said. “It is a great place to grow up. We always enjoyed going to the YMCA for basketball and other activities in high school. We are happy to partner with this campaign to renovate the Y for future generations.”
The couple both graduated from Logansport High School in the early 1970s, according to a YMCA press release.
Their donation means that the Y has gone above the $3.5 million goal set in July 2018 for the “The Next 50 Years” campaign.
Delays had affected the progress.
“We were not able to finish making all of the fundraising contacts we wanted to back in March when COVID-19 hit,” said Executive Director Derreck Parkevich. “We decided the right thing to do was to suspend the campaign due to the uncertainties related to health and the economy.”
The building had also closed on March 17 and began to reopen in June.
The total cost of the planned renovations and financing expenses are now expected to be between $3.8 and $3.9 million, Parkevich said.
“We would like to close the gap some between the current amount raised of $3.5 million and the final renovation cost when the coronavirus is behind us,” he said.
Before the project began, the Y’s leaders toured nearby YMCAs for ideas, then worked with West Lafayette-based KJG Architecture on plans for almost two years.
Parkevich said in July 2018 that the building was in a great location and had a solid structure, but the outdated exterior had no identifiable main entrance.
The building has “a lack of multi-functional spaces, locker room challenges for our seniors and families, bottleneck at the entry desk and unused space for much of the day in some areas of the building,” he said.
Logansport residents Milt and Jean Cole contributed $1 million to the campaign at its start in 2018, and construction began in 2019, being done in phases.
Fundraising hit the $3.3 million mark in November 2019 after 60 other companies, organizations, individuals, families and the City of Logansport made pledges and the Cass County Community Foundation made a $25,000 matching grant.
YMCA members can now use renovated areas on the building’s west end and the recently completed family/private locker rooms.
The renovation’s third phase began in April and is expected to be complete this fall, followed immediately by the fourth phase.
Those phases have the most extensive construction, including a new entrance on the east side with a larger lobby and an improved registration and check-in area, as well as parking lot paving and a larger cardio center.
During the renovations, the free weight area will move to a larger space with new equipment on the lower level to eliminate noise from dropping of weights. The child watch area will be renovated, and a new Youth Activity Center will go next to the gymnasium.
After those phases, work will begin on the pool area and track.
During all the work, underutilized spaces inside will become multi-purpose spaces, including more classroom space and a smaller, multi-functional gymnasium space.
Outside improvements will include landscaping buffers and an improved appearance along Broadway with two-story windows on the east half.
Brian Morrill, YMCA Capital Campaign Chairman, said that although the Petries left Logansport more than 50 years ago, they hadn’t forgotten their hometown.
“When Mike invited me into his office the first thing that caught my eye was a Logansport Berry Booster ‘L’ that he has on display behind his desk,” said Morrill. “He then took me over to a large photo on one of his office walls that was taken in front of Polsinelli’s Bar on Erie Avenue. There was a motor bus with about 40 or 50 men standing in front of it ready to head to a Cubs baseball game in 1947. He pointed out several of his family members in the photo and some members of the Corso and Sabatini families to me.”
“As we talked a little more about Logansport, I could tell he was proud of where he came from and cares passionately about our town and wants it to prosper,” he added. “I was impressed with Mike’s willingness to listen and his down to earth personality.”
Petrie is Chairman and CEO of Merchants Bancorp, a $7.9 billion multi-bank holding company that he co-founded in 1990. It’s headquartered in Carmel.
In 1987, he founded Merchants Affordable Housing Corp., a nonprofit not directly affiliated with Merchants Bank. The organization manages more than 2,500 units in Indiana for residents who lack the economic resources for access to quality rental housing.
He’s active in several Indianapolis area organizations and was awarded the Sagamore of the Wabash in 2004.
In 2019, Petrie was inducted into the Indiana University Kelley School of Business Academy of Alumni Fellows, and he’s on the IU Varsity Club National Board of Directors.
Jody Petrie’s family has owned and operated Engineering Aggregates in Cass County for more than 50 years.
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