The Mount Desert Island YMCA has purchased a home at 2 Rockwood Ave. in Bar Harbor to help house its employees.
The single-family home was purchased last month from Tim and Susan Buell for $650,000 via Erica Brooks of Swan Agency Portside Real Estate Group. The acquisition will help the nonprofit, which hopes to undergo a large expansion project, house its employees in the house’s six bedrooms.
“The seller, a local of Southwest Harbor, was thrilled to sell to the Y and I was proud to broker the deal and donate a portion of our commission back to the deal,” Brooks told MaineBiz.
According to Brooks, the YMCA began its search for housing approximately five years ago. During that time, it had an RV parked behind its building in Bar Harbor. The RV was meant to help with housing for its employees and received special permission from the town to be there.
“I think the challenge overall on MDI for some of these nonprofits is their budget for housing versus the market values, which are on the higher side compared to off-island due to natural supply and demand,” Brooks told MaineBiz. “The Y is truly a community center in our town and for the whole island, so to ensure they can have quality employees with safe and secure housing is a win-win.”
Anne Tikkanen, the YMCA’s director, has also housed employees in a cottage near her own Southwest Harbor residence and then in her home itself. Employees have stayed there, in the RV, a Bar Harbor seasonal cottage, a studio apartment and other options, including their own homes.
“The board has been looking at all sorts of configurations, mainly duplexes,” Tikkanen told Maine Biz about the search.
Throughout the late summer months of 2025, the MDI YMCA has been slowly unrolling what could potentially be a $13 million plan to expand and update its Park Street building and offerings.
In November, board member David Woodside presented its facility plan to the Bar Harbor Town Council, but did not go into specifics as to cost or details.
“We want to keep you apprised of what’s happening down there and what we hope to do,” Woodside said. “We’re looking to do some renovations to the now 25-year-old building.”
Earlier fundraising materials have said that the expansion would likely include a youth development wing. This was briefly mentioned by both Woodside at the council meeting and U.S. Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine.
More space in the second floor wellness center, renovations for the shower and changing areas, and an indoor/outdoor multi-sport court building are possible changes.
The YMCA’s presentation to the council came after Collins announced that she had secured $500,000 for the YMCA’s proposed multi-purpose facility for pre-school, after-school, and community programs.
“The current gymnasium is at its maximum use, and the Youth Development Wing will allow for multi-purpose uses (such as for youth ‘clubs’ such as Lego and chess clubs) including both the existing (and to be expanded) pre-school and after-school programs,” Collins’ office said.
Tikkanen said that the Y has been working for two years developing ideas to improve and expand the campus.
She also confirmed that the main elements of the plan include “much needed renovation and expansion to existing program areas, a new youth development wing, and a field house that would function as a multi-sport court for a large variety of youth and adult recreational sports.”
Tikkanen said that they “plan to conduct fundraising and are in what the fundraising profession would describe as the quiet phase.”
The Y has been hosting get-togethers of “MDI leaders” to fundraise and talk about its expansion plans.
The YMCA is not the only nonprofit looking to make an impact on housing on Mount Desert Island. The YWCA Mount Desert Island is in the midst of an affordable housing project at Hamilton Station in Bar Harbor. Friends of Acadia, Jackson Laboratory, College of the Atlantic and Mount Desert 365 along with the Island Housing Trust all have had substantial projects to help with both year-round and seasonal housing pressures.
“Housing really transcends all of our communities,” Noel Musson of the Musson Group said at the League of Towns meeting in 2024.
Census data illustrate that Maine is leading New England in per capita units being built, with 5.1 units for every 1,000. By comparison, New Hampshire’s rate was 3.4.
Maine Public reported in 2024 that “Gov. Janet Mills has proposed spending $10 million of a more than $250 million surplus on a program that provides zero-interest, forgivable loans for construction of affordable house complexes.”
The housing problem is multi-pronged and short-term rentals are a part of it, Musson said. “It’s one slice in the pie of affordability that we need to tackle.”
That pie includes housing costs, supply costs, property taxes and demand pressures.
“Housing is becoming less affordable,” Musson said.
Retirees are staying in homes longer, but there still needs to be people moving in to fill those jobs that retirees left. There’s also a seasonal housing demand, which increases the overall demand.
“Coastal Maine communities were already low producing,” he said, when it comes to homes.
This story was originally published by The Bar Harbor Story. To receive regular coverage from the Bar Harbor Story, sign up for a free subscription here.
