CATASAUQUA, Pa.- A longtime branch of the YMCA in Lehigh County will close its doors for good in the new year.<\/p>\n
The Suburban North YMCA at 880 Walnut Street in Catasauqua will cease operations January 4, 2026, the organization confirmed to 69 News. Current members were notified of the impending closure on December 3. Bonnie Ackerman, who, along with her husband, Nick, is a longtime member, said she was \u201cvery disappointed,\u201d although not necessarily surprised, by the news.<\/p>\n
The Suburban North branch has been a presence in Catasauqua for over 50 years. Closing it was a decision not taken lightly, River Crossing YMCA Chief Marketing Officer Amanda Wappes told 69 News via email.<\/p>\n
“While we are proud to serve the active, loyal members who frequent the branch, there are not enough members to justify keeping the branch open,\u201d Wappes wrote. She said Suburban North currently has about 340 full-paying members; the branch sees just over 100 visits a day.<\/p>\n
The facility, which is across the street from Catasauqua Middle School, has a full-size gymnasium, weight room, teen center and pickleball court, among other features. It also offers exercise classes, childcare and a summer camp program. Ackerman said the area is losing a major community hub: \u201cEspecially the Silver Sneaker group. They used to have parties, get togethers. That was their socialization.\u201d<\/p>\n
The YMCA is offering Suburban North members the opportunity to try another branch of River Crossing YMCA for free for three months, then resume their paid membership at the branch of their choice beginning April 1, 2026, Wappes told 69 News. The center’s childcare program has transitioned to the YMCA-LVHN Westgate center on Schoenersville Road in Bethlehem, less than five miles away.<\/p>\n
All staff at the Suburban North branch have been offered positions at surrounding YMCA facilities, Wappes said.<\/p>\n
The Catasauqua location is one of more than a dozen branches under the umbrella of River Crossing YMCA, which was formed in 2024 when Greater Valley YMCA and YMCA of Bucks and Hunterdon Counties merged. Ackerman told 69 News; she feels that the writing was on the wall for Suburban North as soon as the deal was done. Classes were cancelled and instructors were let go, she said. \u201cIt\u2019s just been going downhill ever since.\u201d<\/p>\n
River Crossing, though, maintains that it made \u201csignificant facility and marketing investments\u201d to grow membership, but, despite those efforts, \u201cthe operation of the branch has become increasingly unsustainable,\u201d Wappes wrote.<\/p>\n
In October, River Crossing YMCA unveiled plans for a $9 million dollar renovation of its Nazareth branch. The project is expected to get under way in the spring of 2026. The Ackermans wonder why some of that money couldn\u2019t have been used to save the Catasauqua branch. \u201cFor them it\u2019s all money-making. Where can they get the most bang for their buck,\u201d said Bonnie Ackerman, referring to the River Crossing network. \u201cThey\u2019re not thinking of the little guys here.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Wappes told 69 News, the Nazareth renovations have been in the works for years and are being funded in full by a capital campaign and donations earmarked specifically for that project.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"CATASAUQUA, Pa.- A longtime branch of the YMCA in Lehigh County will close its doors for good in…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":57784,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[119,121,120,31690,8469,6560,433,28,5729,5727],"class_list":["post-57783","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-allentown","tag-allentown","tag-allentown-headlines","tag-allentown-news","tag-amanda-wappes","tag-catasauqua","tag-lehigh","tag-lehigh-county","tag-pennsylvania","tag-river-crossing-ymca","tag-ymca"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57783","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=57783"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/57783\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/57784"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=57783"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=57783"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=57783"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}