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The Old YMCA faces on Fifth Avenue, William Street, and Fourth Avenue, sharing a block with the Blake Transit Center and the Ann Arbor Federal Building. As of 2008, the Old YMCA is now torn down and The building is currently vacant, and in the process of being redeveloped in a project named William Street Station.

The most important part of the Old Y site in recent history is the 100-room SRO hotel that faces Fifth Avenue, which has been used as semi-permanent housing for very low-income individuals. When the Y moved to its new site, they attempted to sell the Old Y. AATA bid $3.5m for the site, but the City of Ann Arbor invoked a right of first refusal clause built into the Y's contract to maintain the very-low income housing. With the help of the DDA, the City paid $3.5m for the Old Y in order to guarantee the continuation of affordable housing on that site.

The City did not intend to keep the Old Y in perpetuity, but sought to find a developer who would continue the existence of the housing while reusing the site. The developer HDC, in partnership with the supportive housing provider Hope Network, won the bid to redevelop the site, along with the Blake Transit Center site next door. The new project will include an indoor transit station for AATA, several small retail establishments facing onto William Street, three levels of office space, 100 efficiency and one-bedroom apartments dedicated to very-low income residents, space devoted to supportive services for the affordable housing, and between 60 and 90 more housing units; depending on the financing that HDC can get, the additional housing will either be market-rate condominiums or a mixture of market-rate and affordable apartments. HDC hopes to be finished with the redevelopment by the end of 2008.

In November of 2005, the SRO hotel portion of the site was closed; due to years of deferred maintenance, the heating system had failed and was deemed unfixable by the City. HDC and the City will be providing housing for the displaced residents until the new project is completed; for the first weeks after the closing of the Old Y, those residents were housed in hotels in Ann Arbor and Canton Township; a more permanent (and cheaper) arrangement is hoped for soon.

[edit] In the news

• Asbestos removal to begin at YMCA, Ann Arbor News, March 2008

Downtown Development Authority officials opened six bids Tuesday for the job of demolishing the building, which is owned by the city of Ann Arbor. The bids ranged from a low of $362,912 by Adamo Demolition Co. of Detroit to a high of $872,276 by Beal Inc. of Ann Arbor. The DDA will have a special meeting March 12 to award the bid, DDA Executive Director Susan Pollay said.