Franklin Lakes' Community Center Is Open Again, and It's Really Two Operations Under One Roof

The Franklin Lakes Community Center at 1 Vichiconti Way, off Pulis Avenue, held its grand opening on Saturday, October 3. Two separate operations now share the building. REED Autism Services runs a gym and a café on the first floor. The Borough runs its own fitness classes in a room upstairs. Each side keeps its own hours, prices and sign-up system. If you knew the building in its Wyckoff YMCA years, the new setup takes a little learning. Once you know who runs which room, it's easy to use.

Why the Building Ended Up Split

For a decade the center was leased to the Wyckoff YMCA. When that 10-year lease expired, the Borough asked for proposals and heard from the YMCA and others. The YMCA then told members it was ending services at the center and would not seek to extend its lease, citing continued uncertainty.

Residents also made the case for local use. In July 2025 the Franklin Lakes Football Booster Club started a petition on Change.org arguing that the town's recreation programs needed better space and asking that the building be reclaimed for local children. It gathered more than 600 signatures.

The Borough settled on a shared-use lease. On February 17, 2026, the Mayor and Council introduced an ordinance approving a "Lease Agreement for Shared Use of Franklin Lakes Community Center" with Greens Do Good, a nonprofit associated with REED. REED already runs Reed Academy on Parsons Pond Road in Franklin Lakes. Under the Borough's summary of the lease, REED would run a fitness center in the large first-floor room, open a café in a separate first-floor room, and lease most of the second floor for its own programs. The Borough would buy the gym equipment.

The Borough also kept space for itself. It retained part of the fitness room, mainly for bad-weather days and small-group athletic training, plus a second-floor room for team meetings, group fitness classes and other programs. Those carve-outs keep part of the building in use for local recreation, which is what the booster club petition had asked for. REED announced that the partnership would begin April 1, 2026, and that the Recreation Department would stay in the building.

The opening ceremony reflected the same idea. Speaking at the ribbon cutting, Bergen County Commissioner Tracy Zur, a Franklin Lakes resident, called it a "public-private partnership that revitalized our community center," according to REED's account of the event. Mayor Charles Kahwaty also spoke, along with state legislators.

REED's Side: THE GYM and Beans Do Good

The first floor is where you'll spend most of your time if you just want a workout or a coffee. REED staffs both businesses as part of its job training and paid employment for teens and adults with autism. CEO Chantelle Walker told the opening crowd, as REED reported, "When I look at this building, I see opportunity."

THE GYM soft-opened September 1. REED's gym page lists cardio and strength-training equipment and these hours:

• Monday through Friday, 6 a.m. to 8 p.m.
• Saturday and Sunday, 6 a.m. to 1 p.m.

Membership runs through REED's Mindbody listing, linked from that page. The Borough's launch notice offered a free first month to anyone who joined by October 31, 2026. That deadline has passed, so expect standard rates. The same notice said you could tour the space and meet the team at the center Monday through Friday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Beans Do Good is the café. It takes its name from Greens Do Good, REED's hydroponic vertical farm in Hackensack, which has trained and employed teens and adults with autism since 2019. A grant from the Oritani Charitable Foundation helped launch the café. The café's page lists coffee, refreshments and grab-and-go bites, served inside or at a walk-up window, Tuesday through Thursday from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. REED's October 9 opening recap still described the café as "soon-to-open," so check the page before your first visit.

The Borough's Side: The Upstairs Room

Climb one flight and the Borough is in charge. Its fitness classes meet in the Recreation Multipurpose Room upstairs, taught by Perform As Designed and Rachel Nyhuis. The schedule includes morning, afternoon and weekend times.

Adult classes include Bootcamp, Total Body Strength and Conditioning, Stretch/Mobility, Bodyweight Strength/Animal Flow, Core and Control, and Total Body Tone. Seniors get chair-based strength classes and yoga-style stretch and mobility classes. Students in grades 5 through 8 meet Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday at 4 p.m. These are the Borough's posted rates, as of its October 22, 2026 update:

The 10-pack is the middle option for each group. It brings an adult class down to $21, a senior class to $18.50 and a student class to $20. The student monthly plan works out cheaper still in any month with twelve or more sessions, since it covers three classes a week. These classes are booked and paid for through the Borough, separately from a REED gym membership.

Tuesday Through Thursday Is When the Whole Building Runs

Put the two schedules side by side and the middle of the week stands out. Tuesday through Thursday are the only days when the gym, the café and the upstairs student classes all run.

1. 6 a.m. THE GYM opens every day of the week.
2. 8 a.m. Beans Do Good opens on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays.
3. 4 p.m. The café closes as the grades 5–8 class starts upstairs.
4. 8 p.m. THE GYM closes on weeknights. On weekends it closes at 1 p.m.

That 4 p.m. handoff matters for parents. The café closes just as the after-school class begins, so a coffee during drop-off needs to happen before 4, or it won't happen there.

Outside, the center sits next to the Herbst Field of Dreams, a turf field the Borough describes as completely accessible to walkers and wheelchairs. In summer the Franklin Lakes Dream Team Special Needs Baseball Program plays there on Friday evenings. A Patch community listing showed a playground ribbon cutting on the same October 3 date as the building's opening. A weekday afternoon can cover the field, the playground and an upstairs class without moving the car.

Two Things to Sort Out Before You Sign Up

With two operators at one address, each describes the building in its own words, so a couple of details are worth confirming directly.

• Who can join THE GYM. The Borough's February lease summary says gym membership "will be open to the public." REED's About page for the center, published in August, says the center "serves the residents of Franklin Lakes today." Neither page spells out membership terms for nonresidents. If you're inviting a friend from Wyckoff or Oakland to join with you, ask THE GYM about eligibility before either of you signs up.
• Which contact handles what. Questions about gym membership and café hours go to REED. Questions about upstairs class schedules and the Borough's carve-out of the gym floor for team training go to the Franklin Lakes Recreation Department, which still works out of the building.

When you search for either operator, use the building's full name under the lease, "Franklin Lakes Community Center in Partnership with Reed Autism Services."

A gym, a café and Borough classes at one address add to what the neighborhood around Pulis Avenue offers day to day. If you'd like to see how Franklin Lakes amenities like this one show up in your home's value, The Ivanov Group can walk you through the numbers. Get Your Instant Home Valuation.