One of the South's largest YMCA affiliates, the 300-employee Heart of the Valley YMCA of Huntsville, Ala., has a new-found credit union friend, the $2.5 billion Redstone FCU, which has stepped up to the plate this fall with facility financing and special member branding.

Redstone's business loan tie-in coupled with member benefits culminates nearly a year of negotiations between the Alabama CU and the Huntsville YMCA by forging a successful partnership after the Huntsville charity was left in the lurch by the pullout of a bank on a building expansion in nearby Madison, Ala.

The Redstone-YMCA deal is noteworthy not only for the bridge loan to help finance construction of the $15 million Craig and Steven Hogan Family Center YMCA in Madison in the fall of 2010 but also for an agreement with YMCA providing lower rates for Redstone members to use its health and fitness facilities throughout Huntsville.