Your Questions

The North Andover Youth Center was built in July, 2000. Since then, the Center has grown tremendously, running programs and servicing over 3,000 youth per year.  Our programs fall into the following categories: adventure, social/recreational, leadership, support services, and court-related services. The Center is geared toward middle school and high school aged youth. During the summer, a number of programs for elementary aged youth are run, mostly outdoors. Staff consists of six full-time employees as well as a host of part-time employees and volunteers.  Through the popularity growth over the years, it’s been clear that there’s a real need for additional space to accommodate the quantity of youth that participate at the Center and the additional programs they deserve.  

The project is currently in the design phase working within the $400K appropriation approved at the May 2025 Town Meeting.  The project will go through a portion of design and cost estimating going into the May 2027 Town Meeting.  If the project’s an article at the May 2027 Town Meeting and is approved, the remainder of design and bidding will go into the Fall / Winter of 2027, then construction through closeout will take approximately 14 – 16 months.  In this scenario, it’s anticipated that the Addition would be occupiable at the beginning of 2029.

The Addition is 2-stories, totaling approximately 5,000 SF.  The spaces programmed within it are:

• Fitness / Wrestling / Dance Space

• Teen Hangout Space

• Multi-Purpose Room (Social Zone)

• Sensory / Wellness Space (Quite Zone)

• Study Common

• STEM (Messy Zone)

• Storage 

The above spaces were chosen for the Youth Center Addition based on the results of surveys conducted with North Andover youth and community members, as well as feedback from Youth Center staff.

The project’s preliminary design is funded through the $400K appropriation from the May 2025 Town Meeting.  Once the project’s design and scope is fully developed, there will be an understanding of the hard (construction) and soft (architect, engineers, consultants, contingency, furniture, etc.) costs.  It’s anticipated that the project will be at a point of understanding the project scope and cost by the end of 2026.