UPLAND – The Upland City Council on November 28 committed more than $330,000 toward purchasing the YMCA building in Memorial Park with an eye toward transforming it into a community center.

Previously, the council had budgeted a sizable chunk of its Community Development Block Grant funds for the revitalization of C Street downtown. But on Monday, the council reallocated $334,516 of that money to initiate the purchase of the former Upland Scheu Family YMCA building at 1350 San Bernardino Road.

Total cost of the building will run to around $575,000. The council will obtain the approximate $240,484 difference during its mid-year budgeting adjustments in January.

Mayor Ray Musser said the acquisition was one worth making.

“Upland does not have a large community room at all,” he said. “The Carnegie Building seats 80 to 90 for dinner. The Gibson Senior Center has a room that will accommodate 120 or 125 comfortably. The same number fit in the Magnolia Center. If we expand the YMCA building and take the walls out, we could easily fit 250 people there. We won’t have to go to the Double Tree in that other city [neighboring Ontario] for big events. I am anxious that we expand the building. We have donors who want to provide for it, so that is a big blessing.”

The cost of the expansion could run as high as $1.4 million.