BOYNTON BEACH — The Community Caring Center of Palm Beach County is awaiting a move out of its cramped ranch-style building at 145 NE Fourth Ave. in a $1.36 million project that adds another layer onto efforts to refresh the Heart of Boynton.
After five years of talk, the Community Redevelopment Agency Board agreed on June 11 to pay $205,000 for the center's site, freeing it to move to three nearby CRA-owned lots.
The CRA appraised the site at $171,000 in July. The center paid $65,400 for the property in October 2000.
Sherry Johnson, the nonprofit's executive director, estimated the organization's pantry serves 50 to 60 households three days a week. The center distributes food to low-income families, offers programs for the elderly and sick and sponsors a business incubator to help culinary start-ups.
About two-thirds of its clients live nearby, she said.
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The CRA wants the Northeast Fourth Avenue property, which is within its stalled Cottage District, to spur development in the long-neglected Heart of Boynton area.
Moving will allow the Community Caring Center to build a 6,000-square-foot hub for food distribution, business incubation and other social services. The new structure is planned nearby at Northeast Third Street and Ninth Avenue, just south of Martin Luther King Jr. Boulevard.
The CRA also will give the center $345,000.
Still, to foot the bill, the center likely will need a construction loan of nearly $413,000 and will have to track down another $400,000. The organization wants to stay until it has the money. The new building isn't expected to be ready before 2021.
“There is still a lot of fundraising to do to be able to realize the totality of that project," Johnson said.
As pitched, the center's new facility would sweep together the agency’s social service initiatives at Fourth Avenue with its business development work on East Boynton Beach Boulevard.
The organization oversees low-cost kitchen space, career training and classes, atop its work to provide food and help its clients. Johnson said the incubator works. It has tacked more than 100 jobs and at least 20 businesses onto the city’s economy.
Regardless, Johnson said, at the current site, “we are just hitting a wall.”
Infusions Cafe, one business that operates off East Boynton Beach Boulevard, could move into the new center, Johnson said. There is a spot for a cafe in the plans, as well as space for continued culinary career support, food distribution and storage of dry and frozen foods. She's hoping to add a second phase, which would bump the total bill up by nearly $1 million.
Johnson said the center wants to leave the largest footprint it can.
“We need all of your assistance,” Johnson told the CRA board on June 11. When the board directed CRA staff to begin digging into contract specifics with the nonprofit, Johnson and her board members applauded.
“I’m really looking forward to this project,” said Mayor Steven Grant, who chairs the CRA board. “This is really going to be an anchor for our MLK corridor.”
On Northeast 1st Street, where homes show their age and the neighborhood is speckled with empty lots, residents view the center fondly.
“They’ve been good people,” said Louis Kalliantas, who’s lived there for 25 years.
He griped that some food recipients would toss cans, trash and extra bags onto his property.
But he related to the center's mission.
“I’ve had hard times before. I know what hard times are,” Kalliantas said. “I’m pro-, you know, society. We need more help.”
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Curtis Johnson rents a home across the road and sees the center, where he’s volunteered, help around 40 people on given days. Some come on foot, he said.
Johnson touted the center’s range of services: food stamp appointments, legal help, “basically anything that you need.”
Farther down the street, Naromie Jean-Pierre said she’s lived in the city since she was 16 and has rented on that street for 11 years. She said she just wants to see local development that brings homes and restaurants, opportunities for work and for life.
“You’ve gotta cross 95 to find something,” she said. “It’s about time they do something to the east, too.”
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