PROVIDENCE — The YMCA of Greater Providence, which operates nine YMCAs throughout the state, is taking over and renovating the last remaining building in the former Riverside Mill, an Olneyville complex that burned in 1989, for a permanent headquarters and to provide youth programs for the city’s recently opened Riverside Park, next door.

But unlike other YMCA spaces throughout the city, this one, at 50 Aleppo St., won’t have a pool or weight room. “It’s not going to be the typical YMCA space,” says YMCA President and CEO Karen Leslie.

The goal is to serve a residential neighborhood that emerged in recent years in an area that once was blighted and a haven for crime. Riverside Park comprises 7 acres, most of it former Riverside Mill property.

City officials envision neighborhood programs that take advantage of the park, which includes stretches of the Woonasquatucket Bike Path, a community garden, playground, canoe launch and athletic fields.

The park and the YMCA, it is hoped, would serve an area that has seen, in recent years, the construction of 31 rental apartments just across the street from the park, and a separate development of 20 condominium units farther down Aleppo Street by the nonprofit Olneyville Housing Corporation.

“This is the right thing to be doing, for the YMCA and the community,” says Leslie. “There is an awful lot of potential in that park.”

The historic, two-story building at 50 Aleppo St. –– once the offices of the mill complex –– has been under the stewardship of the city Parks Commission since 2004, but has remained empty. Today its windows are boarded up and a blue tarp has been drawn over the roof to prevent further deterioration.

The city has been unwilling to part with the historic building, and last spring, it sent out a request for proposals to develop the site; only the YMCA responded.

Under a tentative agreement, the city Parks Commission would lease the site to the YMCA for $1 a year for a length of time to be determined. The YMCA agrees to renovate the building and provide neighborhood programs there and in Riverside Park.

Structural engineers and an architect hired by the YMCA have surveyed the building, which dates to about 1878, and determined that it is structurally sound, say Leslie and city officials.

There is no estimate yet to how much the rehabilitation project will cost, but when it is completed the building will more than double in size, to about 13,000 square feet, according to plans submitted to the city.

The plan calls for the first floor to be devoted to community programs, while the second floor would contain offices for the YMCA’s staff of about 25.

“It’s going to take some work, but we’ve been told it will work,” said city Parks Supt. Robert McMahon of the building renovation. The YMCA is financing the construction project through a combination of donations and capital funds.

The property is designated open space, which bars such development, but the YMCA is seeking a zoning variance.

The venture has already received master-plan approval from the Planning Commission, which is the first step in the approval process.

The YMCA of Greater Providence’s current headquarters is at 222 Richmond St. in the Jewelry District, space leased from Brown University.

pmarcelo@projo.com