The YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids will invest $15 million to quadruple the size of a Montcalm County fitness center that the nonprofit organization acquired at the end of 2024. 

The YMCA purchased the Club Fitness Center in Greenville in late December 2024. The nonprofit now is working to expand and renovate the facility into a more expansive health hub with increased programming and partnerships with leading health care providers, YMCA leadership says. 

“This is bigger than just the Y — expanding to Greenville was community-driven,” said Sara Mooney, chief advancement officer for the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids. “Expanding into Montcalm County means more families, seniors, and kids will have access to programs that support their overall well-being.” 

The Club Fitness Center, located about 30 miles northeast of downtown Grand Rapids, has served as Montcalm County’s only full-service fitness facility for nearly 40 years and has been the longest-running fitness center in West Michigan under its original owners and operators, said co-owner Alan “Al” Guilfoyle. 

Guilfoyle and his wife, Gloria, opened the business together in 1986 in a 3,000-square-foot facility in downtown Greenville. Later the club doubled its size and moved to a new location before finally building its current 15,000-square-foot space with all the amenities of a “big city club,” Al Guilfoyle said. 

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The center, located at 1401 W. Oak St., has a variety of workout equipment, an indoor pool, sauna, hot tub and basketball court. The center also holds various group exercise classes and events. 

When considering the future of the business, the Guilfoyles had always seen the YMCA as an ideal successor, and that it would be the “cherry on top of ending our careers.” 

Over the years, corporate owners had made offers to purchase the club, but none were the right fit for the couple who wanted to preserve and enhance the community efforts they started, Al Guilfoyle said. 

“We wanted something that is stable and will continue what we’ve started, rather than just make money,” Guilfoyle said. 

In July 2019, the Guilfoyles partnered with the Y to expand their swimming programming and started laying the groundwork for the Y to become its successor. After pauses during the COVID-19 pandemic, conversations around a deal resurfaced in 2023. 

“(The Guilfoyles) have been incredible advocates for health and wellness in the community, and it became clear that the club’s offerings like fitness classes, programming, and even drop-in daycare, aligned so well with what the Y does,” Mooney said. 

In 2024, the Y conducted a feasibility study to examine how the organization could transform the Greenville location into a YMCA. The Y then launched a capital campaign with the goal of $15 million for the project. So far, the Y has raised about half of this goal from local foundations, individuals, businesses and governmental entities, Mooney said. 

Mooney said the Y is in the process of working with Progressive Companies, a Plainfield Township-based architecture firm, to finalize the design to transform the 15,000-square-foot Greenville facility into a 72,000-square-foot health and wellness hub. 

Tentative plans for the enhanced facility include adding a KidZone for drop-in daycare, multipurpose rooms for classes and community gatherings, an indoor splash pad, a full-sized gymnasium painted for pickleball, and an indoor track that would be open to people without a Y membership, Mooney said. 

In partnership with fitness offerings and programming, the Greenville location will house additional health services. 

Cherry Health plans to relocate its Montcalm Area Health Center, currently located at 1003 N. Lafayette St. in Grandville, to the new YMCA. This will expand medical, dental, vision, and pharmacy services for more than 4,600 clients, Mooney said. 

Additionally, Corewell Health plans to move its outpatient physical therapy services to the location. 

“It’s truly a collaborative effort to bring more health resources under one roof,” Mooney said.

The Club Fitness Center facility will remain open under the Guilfoyles’ leadership through fall 2025. One full-time and a group of part-time employees will stay with the team following the acquisition. Gloria Guilfoyle, who teaches about eight to 10 classes a week, will remain with the Y team as well. 

“(Retiring is) kind of a double-edged sword,” Al Guilfoyle said. “Our community is a great community and we’ve been here a long time. It’s sad on one hand, but happy.”

The Club Fitness Center’s name will transition under the YMCA of Greater Grand Rapids umbrella, and Y leadership is working with a donor on a potential new name for the facility, Mooney said. 

Terms of the deal were not disclosed. Holland-based Cunningham Dalman P.C. served as legal adviser and Hungerford CPAs and Advisors served as financial adviser to the Guilfoyles. 

Other acquisitions are not in the works, Mooney said. 

Once the expansion design is finished, an application will be submitted to the Greenville City Commission for approval. The Y aims to break ground and start renovations in 2026.

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