AUBURN — Auburn-Lewiston YMCA officials said 92 acres of undeveloped land just outside Auburn’s downtown will be its new home.

The property, which includes trees and fields, is on the Stetson and North River roads in a traditionally rural area sandwiched between the Androscoggin River and Route 4 in Auburn.

“This site seems to be the best for our needs,” Kristin Melville, the local YMCA’s  development director, said. “It’s a quarter-mile from the downtown area, maybe less than that.”

Particular plans for the look and shape of the new facility, its cost and when it will be built are all uncertain. The YMCA has scheduled a press conference for Sept. 29 to talk about details.

However, county records show the land changed hands only last week.

William H. Cummings Jr. of Auburn sold two parcels on North River Road totaling almost 92 acres to the YMCA last week for an undisclosed sum. Paperwork was signed on Sept. 14 and officially recorded at the Androscoggin County Registry of Deeds the next day. The city values the parcels at $680,900.

At the same time, the YMCA bought an adjacent acre-sized parcel at 167 Stetson Road from Arthur Wildes. That purchase, too, was for an undisclosed sum. The land, which also included a house, was valued by the city at $138,600.

Cummings declined to be interviewed Thursday. The Sun Journal’s attempts to reach Wildes were unsuccessful.

The notion of building a new YMCA in a new location has been growing for years.

Parking is tough at its current home beside the Androscoggin County Courthouse on Turner Street. There is nowhere to expand. And the three-story building, which turns 90 next year, is growing obsolete. Facilities such as its basement pool are too small for hoped-for activities.

When Executive Director Brian DuBois was hired about three years ago, he told the YMCA’s board that he hoped to lead the construction of a new multimillion-dollar facility with a modern pool and fitness room, spaces for outdoor athletics and more space for child care and other services.

Quietly, he and the board have examined sites and raised money.

One of the places examined was the campus around the former Great Falls School in New Auburn, but that became unavailable when Community Little Theatre signed a long-term deal with the city to occupy the property.

DuBois said he wished to keep the longtime institution downtown, if possible. But few sites had enough space to do all he and the board wished, he said in an interview shortly after taking the job.

YMCAs in Bath and Freeport both have new, large campuses.

The new site should have plenty of space, stretching much of the way between the Stetson Road and Bradman Street.

Melville, the YMCA’s development director, said she thinks of the move as a new chapter.

She has been researching the creation of the YMCA in Auburn, tracing it back to its early meetings in a Court Street church.

The current building, its first, was built to serve soldiers returning home from World War I and their families, she said. Events were often meant to bond fathers and sons, highlighting its name as the Young Men’s Christian Association. There were also 55 short-term boarding rooms, rented exclusively to men.

In its earlier days, the YMCA building had a bowling alley and pool tables. Those were removed as the institution turned its focus toward fitness and service to the whole family.

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