New community center opens in northeast Columbia
COLUMBIA, Mo. (KMIZ)
A local nonprofit is looking to transform Columbia's Third Ward and the "Clark Lane Corridor" with the Beacon of Light Community Center.
United Community Builders announced the grand opening of the building on Tuesday morning during a ribbon-cutting.
"When I came here in 1998, this was the premier area for college students and for single-family homes to be here," said Damian Dean, who is the executive director of Unite Community Builders. "This location of our facility is in a resource desert, and we're trying to recapture the glory of what it was, but also build for the future generations."
The 22,500-square-foot center is located at the corner of Sylvan Lane and Towne Drive and features a gymnasium with an indoor basketball court, conference room, industrial kitchen, outdoor playground and several offices and classrooms for UCB Academy Students and staff.
Groups will be able to rent out spaces and a plan for UCB-hosted events. UCB also currently runs a "Transformation" program that helps low-income and minority adults with career education. This includes classes on resume building, career planning and workplace training.
"We will have some open gym to some extent, but everything is going to be geared towards being strategic and intentional," Dean said. "We're helping young people and families get the things that they need."
Donors, ARPA funds and state and county governments helped fund the project. According to prior reporting, UCB raised at least $7.9 million for the center. Boone County and City of Columbia Documents report both governments gave the project $750,000 in ARPA funds.
According to City of Columbia documents, the total costs for HVAC and elevator construction came to around $3.87 million.
"This is huge, people can see and dream and think about raising our community enrichment with property value," D’Markus Thomas-Brown, City of Columbia's administrator of the Office of Violence Prevention said.
"It was it was a blessing for us at the local level that the Congress, federal government and trusted local leaders to make decisions like the one" Boone County Commissioner Kip Kendrick said. "It's a big lift for local governments but it also, local governments, I think, are sometimes well positioned to know what projects have been discussed for years, what projects are probably ready to move forward and have momentum behind them and this is this is a wonderful example.
Northeast Columbia residents John and Elvira Maxwell called the center a 'miracle.'
"Many of our young people have gone astray, no guidance in their home, no male figure and they hit the streets. So United Community is doing an awesome job," Elvira Maxwell said. "When we work together, we see what can happen."
