Whatley Health Services Aims To Expand Offerings At Former Benjamin Barnes YMCA

TUSCALOOSA, AL — Whatley Health Services spoke with Tuscaloosa city leaders Tuesday as the nonprofit health care provider looks to purchase the former Benjamin Barnes YMCA in the city's West End.

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During a meeting of the Tuscaloosa City Council's Properties Committee, Whatley Health Services CEO David E. Gay was told that the nonprofit was the only entity to respond during the RFP process regarding the location.

As Patch previously reported, the Benjamin Barnes YMCA recently relocated to a new facility on the campus of the McDonald Hughes Center, opening in December 2024.

Gay grew up in the West End and said the YMCA holds significance to him personally, before speaking to the potential for the building.

Gay explained that Whatley Health Services wants to purchase the former YMCA branch to be used to expand certain services as the demand continues to grow.

In total, Gay said the nonprofit served 61,000 patients total across its total across its nine-county service area during the last fiscal year, with Tuscaloosa's Maude L. Whatley Health Center representing its "flagship."

The Tuscaloosa location has roughly 120 of the health care provider's 156 employees.

He went on to explain that while 58% of patients that walk through the doors at Whatley Health Services are African American, 19% are of Hispanic origin — a percentage Gay said is growing.

"We’re seeing more and more of the Hispanic population coming to Maude Whatley," he said. "In fact, we have so many at Whatley that every station has someone who is bilingual."

Whatley Health Services offers a long list of services at present, ranging from family medicine and women's health to podiatry and mental health resources.

The vision for the former YMCA location is for Whatley Health Services to develop a multifunction, community-based health center.

"There are some services we don’t have, we want to make sure the community is part of what we do," Gay said.

This would include expanded podiatry services and behavioral health services, along with a wellness center to offer nutritional counseling and exercise programs such as a walking trail as part of preventive health.

X-ray services would be another crucial addition Gay said the nonprofit would hope to implement, which would allow patients at one of the other satellite clinics in need of an X-ray to be transported free of charge to do so at the new location.

Other new services would include the addition of a chiropractor, optometry, a specialty shop for frames and corrective lenses and denture services.

Due to most of Whatley Health Services' funding coming from the federal level, the location will have to be sold to the nonprofit at fair market value or rented at fair market rate.

The Properties Committee voted to approve a motion for an appraisal on the property as Whatley Health Services looks to acquire it outright.

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