Jefferson City Council passes permit for new Boys & Girls Club facility

The Jefferson City Council unanimously passed a special exception use permit for a new Boys & Girls Club facility Monday.

The former building of the Boys & Girls Club of the Capital City on East Elm Street was demolished for the ongoing Lafayette Street interchange project.

“The former building was donated to the Boys & Girls Club many years ago, and at that time the Boys & Girls Club didn’t have nearly the enrollment or the activity that it does now,” Boys & Girls Club Board President Tim Sigmund said. “And I think even just nationally Boys & Girls Clubs are so big. And this community really has a need.”

The non-profit organization will build its new facility at 1105 Lafayette Street near the Lincoln University campus. The site falls in a single-family residential zone, but the bill passed was a special exception permit to operate a neighborhood community center or community activity building.

The Boys & Girls Club hopes to start construction on the new facility as soon as possible, most likely within the next month or two, according to Sigmund.

Plans for the building show it would be two stories tall with 18,000 square feet.

The building will include classrooms, offices, a full-service cafeteria, a recording studio and a teen center, which previously had to be in a separate building.

Construction will cost about $3 million, according to Sigmund. It will be funded mainly from donations and grant money.

The Boys & Girls Club of the Capital City currently serves about 450 students during the school year.