HASTINGS, Neb. –  After seven years of planning and two years of renovations, the upgraded Hastings YMCA is now ready to serve its community.

It’s a moment CEO Troy Stickels says hasn’t sunk in yet.

"I don't know if it ever will," said Stickels. "Walking around this morning and talking to people, people are loving it. The staff deserves it, and for me, to give them a nice place to work, and to give the community a nice YMCA that's going to last a long time is exciting."

On Monday, the Hastings YMCA on 16th St welcomed members back into the building that was undergoing renovations for the past two years.

The other YMCA building on 18th St had served as its replacement during that time, but has now been sold to a local church.

The updated YMCA building was built in 1980 and had reached the end of its lifespan.

According to Stickels everyone was fed up constantly repairing the outdated building, prompting the upgrades.

"Instead of using the money we do make to better help the community and do more stuff, we're spending it all the time on fixing things," said Stickels. "It was almost to the point where we couldn't fix stuff."

The new facility boasts 90,000 square feet of space for dozens of services, including weight rooms, an indoor playground, child care, a brand new gymnasium, a virtual golf simulator, and much more.

Associate Executive Director Ty LeBar runs summer sports camps for kids at the YMCA, and is excited for the extra space, which he didn’t have at the other building.

"One thing I'm excited about is Husker camps that we do with Husker athletes," said LeBar. "We've had to go outside using our facility before because it's just not big enough. I look forward to have volleyball camps with Husker players in our facility with 400 kids at one time."

To make this project possible, the YMCA had to endure inflation price increases that saw their project go from an estimated $14 million to $20 million.

"The community and state foundations really stepped up and helped," said Stickels. "To raise almost 20 and a half million dollars –– it seems weird to say since it's a lot of money."

The YMCA is opening at 8 a.m. for the rest of the week to ease into the new building, but will open normal hours beginning next week.