It’s time for Englewood to have a community center.
Englewood Community Center, Inc. (“ECC”) is proposing to redevelop the Russell C. Major Liberty School site into a $20 million, 55,000 square foot state of the art community center for the use and benefit of the entire Englewood community.
ECC is a sole purpose nonprofit whose mission is to ensure development and governance of a community center which would remain in the hands of the Englewood community for perpetuity. Although building on the efforts of Metro Community Church and in partnership with Metro, ECC, Inc. has no religious affiliation or any other responsibility other than to manage the community center on behalf of the residents of Englewood.
Project management and leadership is in place, with a core team capable of executing the project at a high level. Our team of highly skilled professionals familiar with similar redevelopment projects will include a Project Manager / Developer, Architect, Civil Engineer, Capital Campaign Consultant, and Legal Counsel.
Our core team has conducted extensive due diligence, including completing dozens of meetings with community organizations and residents and spending significant resources on schematic design and preconstruction due diligence.
We believe our proposal directly addresses a 30-plus year desire in our community for a community center. Our children deserve a place to safely congregate after school and receive enrichment and recreation activities. Our seniors want to be active and engaged through classes and volunteer opportunities. Others want a place to learn new skills or meet up with other members of our community. The City needs a central location to gather and celebrate. The beauty of this project is that it will not detract from the already wonderful programming happening within the City; rather, it will enhance it. The proposed project will allow current programming of local nonprofits to expand and new initiatives to flourish, thus attracting residents from all four wards of our City.
Though the request has been made numerous times, Englewood still remains without a community center. Regardless of the reasons why it has not happened in the past, we have a prime opportunity before us now. The Russell C. Major Liberty School site represents a once in a generation or more opportunity to address deep community need and further position Englewood as a flourishing community to live, work, and play.
You can contact us through Sanetta Ponton who is the Executive Director of the nonprofit formed to spearhead this development and a life-long resident of Englewood. She can be reached at (201) 408-0121 or sponton@englewoodcommunitycenter.org.