YMCA – St. Paul Downtown

Great staff. Good customer service. Good trainers for the free group classes.
The gym is very limited now, due to heavy water damage. The gym only have a small weight room and a group exercise room. Everything else is under construction, including the roof. So give them a call before you go in, that way you are not disappointed.

Whatever you do, dont join the St Paul Y!!! I agree completely with the comments made regarding the lack of customer service from the Staff. First, the monthly fee for joining is ridiculously high with very little benefit. I suppose full price members pay to supplement the membership fees of those less fortunate. If so, I get it and love the idea. However, the level of customer service should equate to the cost of membership. The «New» equipment I was sold on works sporadically and broken machines take weeks to fix.
I was also billed for an additional month after cancellation and have been harassed repeatedly about it. I’m fighting it in court if necessary because I have the sense this is a long standing scam. This summer the roof has collapsed and two floors are unusable by members yet fees were not adjusted. So wait! I now pay the same fees for less?
Making it my personal mission to warn others based on my experience.
Update: Warned three people away from the Y this week alone! Mission accomplished!

The YMCA in downtown St Paul is underutilized, especially on weekends. This makes it a great place to work out at the beginning of the year when people are working hard on their new year’s resolutions and cardio machines are hard to come by at busier YMCA locations. Cardio equipment is available on the 4^th floor and on a second-​floor interval training room. Both areas are accessible by staircases from the third-​floor lobby.
This YMCA features a small fifth-​floor indoor running track that is just large enough to prevent you from getting dizzy. Racquetball courts, basketball courts and a pool are also available. The adult locker room includes a steam room.
The equipment at this YMCA is older than other YMCA’s in the area — and parking can be a hassle — but it’s easily accessible via the St Paul Skyway.

I second the comments made by Mark and Ali based on having been a member for years.
I quit because of the incompetence or unwillingness of the staff to make even modest changes, or even enforce their own rules, to enhance the customer experience. I mean, what other gym faces it’s cardio machines towards the wall? I felt like I was being punished to work out. Locker vandalism and theft was so routine I bought combination locks in multi-​packs.
And the irritation did not stop when I quit. For months after, their billing department badgered me to pay for the month after I had given notice and for which I received no goods or services. With great reluctance and irritation, I paid what they were asking because I tired of the harassment,
Equipment (stationary bikes, treadmills, weight machines) and facility (elevators, pools, hot tub, sauna) failures are common place and take lots of time to get resolved. As a guy with bad knees, the elevator failures are especially vexatious.
OH! During one of the elevator failures, Skyway staff suggested I try the East Side «Y» on Arcade. I was there for 45 minutes before tiring of the unruly and unsupervised kids. I went back to my locker and found it had been broken into. Imagine that.
Flash forward. I need to go back to a gym to rehab and thought I’d check on the «Y» as they were offering free initiation for past members. Their monthly rates went up, again, and the membership director said the cardio machines still face the wall and I needed to pay a past due balance before I could re-​enroll. The irritation picked right back up where it left off…

This is the Y for me. Sure, it’s not as frilly as some locations, but there are four unique floors of activities and equipment at this location rather than a sprawling endless gym. The skyway level has a nice variety of cardio machines, a spinning studio, and some old weight machines. The middle floor has the pool, locker rooms, and lobby with free wi-​fi. The top two floors feature racquetball courts, basketball courts, yoga and fitness studios, more cardio machines, really nice weight machines, free weights, and a running track — accessible by a nifty spiral staircase.
I would give this Y five stars but I have a few minor complaints. 1) The toilets in the locker room are impossible to flush with a very antiquated flushing mechanism. 2) There are no fans in the skyway cardio area. 3) Compared to most gyms I’ve joined, this one has a real lack of mirrors.
All that said, I’m so glad I joined. I can reach my fitness goals and hang out in my neighborhood without going outside in the winter.

If I were to have written this review last spring I would have said this place is in need of a face lift. But sometime last summer this place did indeed get one. It still has the feel like it been around a while but every machine is new and with fresh paint and flooring all around this place is not a bad choice if you live or work in the area. I really cannot comment on the pool or locker rooms as I have never used them.
If you like classes they really cater more to the noon lunch crowd rather than the locals who live in the area. But skyway access is a great perk for all in the area. Also, this facility has fewer kids and families due to its downtown location. This may be a plus for some.