Downtown Phoenix's YMCA will serve as the recreation complex for an estimated 3,000 students when ASU's downtown campus opens next fall.
The YMCA will be used for at least the 2006-07 school year, said Kevin Cook, vice provost and dean of student affairs downtown.
ASU has not decided when it will build its own center, he said.
"ASU doesn't have plans to develop a new recreation center here very quickly," Cook said.
Though ASU and the YMCA have not yet decided details like how much this relationship could cost per student, the use of the facility will not cost students any extra money, Cook said.
The price of admission would be included in tuition, like it is at Tempe's Student Recreation Complex, he said.
ASU will not be paying the YMCA any money other than student fees, he added.
"Both parties are hopeful," Cook said.
The YMCA facility is located at 350 N. First Ave., just west of the main downtown campus classroom facilities. The campus' main address is 411 N. Central Ave.
George Scobas, executive vice president of the downtown YMCA, said the facility includes an aerobic dance studio, gym, two large locker rooms, racquetball courts, an indoor pool and 20,000 square feet of weightlifting areas.
"It's probably as large as what is at the Tempe campus," he said.
The SRC is a 139,000-square-foot facility, and the YMCA has more than 100,000 square feet of recreational areas.
The YMCA is being renovated to expand the locker rooms and weight rooms, he said. Renovation to the facility will be finished at the end of March.
Scobas said the facility has about 2,000 members, but it will be able to accommodate the extra traffic brought by ASU students.
Sam Zilversmit, a Phoenix resident who swims at the YMCA five times a week, said ASU should get its own facility.
"Another 20 people [in the pool] and it's done," Zilversmit said. "That's too much."
He said even with the renovations and expansion, areas like the swimming pool are not going to be getting bigger.
"And it's not even half the size of one of the many pools [at ASU's Tempe campus]," he added.
Carlos Hernandez, who works in a freight warehouse downtown, said ASU students at the YMCA wouldn't be bad.
A frequent visitor to the YMCA, Hernandez said the extra members wouldn't all be there at the same time.
"I think it's good," he said. "With college students hanging around, I just might learn something."
Reach the reporter at tara.brite@asu.edu.
