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By MIKE FRANOLICH
Courier-Post Staff
Can you say, Hot? John Worley can.
The CEO of the Family Y of Burlington County has looked out his windows into a wide swathe of open fields since this facility debuted in 1991.
"We've had our little outpost here for awhile," he said.
But not for much longer.
The Y property that was donated by builder Thomas Whitesell is smack between two high-growth commercial areas.
``It will change how we do business,'' Worley said of the massive developments planned around the Y.
"We will be in construction for a few years,'' he said.
Rooted in two communities
The two-story Y stands in two communities and offers many programs to the thousands of new families that have moved into the area in the 1990s.
The Y takes its address from Mount Laurel on one side. Worley's office faces the township, toward Route 38 and the Interstate 295 entrance near Marter Avenue.
He looks out his office window on land where the proposed, $100 million Centerton Square development would, if approved, bring a hotel, restaurants and more.
Centerton Square could also mean more passing - or snarling - traffic, more Y members and new revenue streams, he said.
"The future is in forging better relationships with our growing business community," Worley said.
Planning has already begun for the Y to become a potential care provider for some of those businesses, giving them the use of Y facilities, such as a child care program and indoor track and more.
Moorestown embraces the Y, too
But part of the Y's future is also in Moorestown, in which part of its building and grounds also sit. Adjacent to that side of the facility, steel girders already are rising. What you see there now is the skeletal frame of a strip shopping center along Centerton Road. What you'll see next is an Acme supermarket, further down on Marter Avenue at Centerton Road, at the current access road to the Y.
But along Centerton in the other direction, near Hartford Road in Moorestown, are acres on which developers have been feverishly planning to build high density housing and more office buildings.
And behind the Y in Moorestown are about six open acres of Y-owned property that border Marne Highway. Worley said the Y is closing in on potential agreements to sell about three acres, on which office buildings might be built. Any proceeds, though, would be used to enhance the county Y's newest facility in Burlington Township.
"We've already made a commitment for completion of construction of a child-care center for the Riverfront,'' he said.
To survive the potential traffic, Worley's Y has planned to create a second access road from its Marne Highway frontage near Marter Avenue.
Otherwise, Worley said, it's easy to see a day when the Y will expand its own building on its three or so remaining acres.
Today, about 8,000 Y members enjoy all the building has to offer.
This isn't your father's Y anymore
"We have to communicate who we are to the general community," Worley said. "We're not just `gym and swim.'"
He said, "We never turn anyone away because of an inability to pay."
Recently, Barry O'Donnell, 38, of Moorestown, was riding a stationary bicycle in the gym as dozens of other men and women worked out on weight machines. O'Donnell said he enjoys the privileges that come with a Y family membership. He and his family often come here. In the past, they've taken part in karate and swimming lessons, and O'Donnell still enjoys a quick workout during the work week.
"It's not crowded, there's a ton of equipment and weights," he said.
"It's always very clean and we're very happy with the teachers and the staff," said Karen Connolly, 33, of Pemberton Township, as she waited in the lobby for her daughter to emerge from a tots program.
"As long as she's happy, I'm happy. And she's happy."
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