The Yellow Springs Senior Center announced this week that it has signed a contract to purchase the former lumberyard property at 108 Cliff St. The Senior Center had previously announced in January that it was considering the Cliff Street site as a location for its future new facility.

As outlined in a March 28 press release, the contract represents what the Senior Center describes as a “strategic shift — not a restart,” following months of analysis, community input and negotiations with the property’s current owners.

The move is a change in direction from a previously planned new build on a Livermore Street parcel the nonprofit purchased from Antioch College in December 2023. Rather than build its new facility from the ground up, the Senior Center now plans to rehabilitate the Cliff Street site’s existing post-and-beam structure.

In an interview this week, Executive Director Caroline Mullin said the shift came after extended discussions between the Senior Center board and Massies Creek Ventures, the Cliff Street property’s current owner.

“It took a lot to figure out exactly how we fit,” Mullin said, noting that negotiations required “some compromise on both sides.”

Board President Jerry Sutton said the process took “about six months to make it a reality,” moving the possibility of developing the Cliff Street site from “a gleam in the eye” to a secured contract.

Mullin said the Cliff Street property addresses feedback from Senior Center and community members about a desire to keep the center downtown, where it can be both visible and walkable, while also offering room for growth. According to the press release, the lumberyard lot is “approximately 25% larger” than the Livermore parcel and includes existing infrastructure, and can be expanded vertically to include a mezzanine level and elevator.

As the News reported in January, a space usage study completed previously by Dayton-based architect firm LWC Incorporated identified the Senior Center’s need for roughly 11,000 square feet — about three times its current building’s size of 3,700 square feet. Mullin said developing 11,000 square feet can be fully realized on the Cliff Street site’s ground floor alone, in addition to the possibility of expanded space in an upstairs mezzanine.

“All of the rooms that LWC had considered we needed fit within one level on the Cliff Street property,” she said. “So there’s the opportunity to build up and add even more.”

A feasibility study completed in 2025 by Loring Sternberg and Associates to assess the organization’s fundraising capacity noted room for phased construction as a “priority” for the Senior Center; Mullin said the Cliff Street site, with its size and existing infrastructure, will allow for a phased approach. Earlier this year, Mullin stated that the total project cost was projected to be around $7 million; the ability to build in stages, she added this week, could allow the project to move forward even if full funding is not secured upfront.

The organization has already begun the first phase of a capital campaign to fund the acquisition, inspections and site preparation, with plans to sell the Livermore property to help finance the project.

“There’s one overarching goal [for the capital campaign], but there is an immediacy that’s necessary to close on buying the Cliff Street site,” Mullin said. “So right now, there’s a push to get $850,000 in hand, some of which will come out of selling the Livermore Street lot.” 

The Senior Center purchased the half-acre lot on Livermore Street for $300,000; Sutton said the Senior Center will offer the land for sale via bid, with the aim to “recoup our cost.”

“We’ll see what the market has done in the intervening two years,” he said.

“The market has changed,” Mullin added, “and we also had a slight shift in the lot size, because we went through an alley vacation process, so there’s a little more land now.”

Mullin reiterated that the Senior Center’s current facility on Xenia Avenue, purchased in 1978, has long been constrained by limited space, accessibility challenges and parking shortages; she told the News in January that those constraints have already limited the number and type of programs the center can offer, even as demand continues to grow. She added this week that a previous board originally identified the need for a new space in 2008.

“It’s been almost 20 years; we’ve had every assessment of this building done to know if we could stay in it — and we can’t,” Mullin said.

By contrast, the new site would allow for a largely single-level layout, with around 30 parking spots available on the property, as well as access to nearby parking areas at the Bryan Center and the municipal lot on Dayton Street, which are near the bike path along which the Cliff Street site is located.

Sutton added that the expanded space available in the former lumberyard building will also offer opportunities to partner with and potentially house other local nonprofits; he said early conversations have begun with such groups, though no formal agreements are in place.

“We’re open to use of that space as a community cultural center,” Sutton said.

As the new building project begins to come into focus, Mullin said Senior Center membership has recently surpassed 800 people — more than we’ve ever had,” she said —  up from about 700 two months ago. Those who use the Senior Center regularly, including its members, are often residents age 60 and older — who account for about 40% of the local population — but also caregivers, volunteers and community members of any age who attend meals, classes and events hosted at the center.

Looking ahead, the Senior Center plans to present updated schematic designs at its annual meeting, slated for Wednesday, June 10. An open house at the Cliff Street site is being planned for May to give community members a chance to view the former lumberyard building and learn more about the project.

If all goes as planned, Mullin and Sutton said, detailed construction drawings could be completed by the end of this year, with a build timeline of 18 to 24 months, putting a potential opening for the new facility in late 2028 or early 2029.