“With the high vacancy rates in the area, we’ve had very little success in renting space lately. There were no takers.” County Commissioner Steve Stuart Giving space to a dream
Friday, December 4, 2009
Clark County to open 5,600 square feet for nonprofit groups
The address for the Vancouver Dream Big Community Center? It’s a post office box.
The official-sounding voice behind Executive Director Nathan Webster’s cell phone voice mail? That would be his wife.
Tiny nonprofits like Dream Big, which will spend just $7,500 this year but aims to raise $5 million to build a teen community center in west Clark County by 2013, have always started on shoestrings.
Starting Jan. 1, Clark County’s government plans to throw Dream Big and other entrepreneurial do-gooders a rope.
The county is about to open 5,600 square feet of its empty office space in downtown Vancouver to an estimated 10 nonprofits, which need a place hang their shingles, pitch their donors and take their phone calls.
The “nonprofit incubator,” at 500 W. Eighth St. near Esther Short Park, will be rent-free for up to two years. Tenants will cover the cost of utilities and upkeep.
“Right now, the majority of my meetings I have at two places: Panera (bakery) and Java House,” said Webster, who has spent three years running Dream Big out of the dining room of the east Vancouver house where he lives with his wife and five children.
A downtown office will give Dream Big the legitimacy it needs to attract big donors, Webster said.
“If a person is prepared to donate more than $1,000, they can’t feel comfortable in a coffee house,” Webster said.
Championed by Stuart
The new incubator’s chief backer, Commissioner Steve Stuart, said the office space will be available “only for organizations that are working primarily for the poor and infirm.”
The new initiative comes as the county struggles to keep up with rising demand for many social services. Tax shortfalls have forced the county to cut 120 jobs in the last year, leaving many of its offices empty.
The county may need its office space back eventually.
But for the moment, it’s just sitting empty and costing money, Stuart said.
“With the high vacancy rates in the area, we’ve had very little success in renting space lately,” Stuart said. “There were no takers.”
So Stuart, who joined Dream Big’s board this year, pushed for the county to put the vacant space to work.
“We have the ability to help those nonprofits on their feet,” Stuart said. “This is for new organizations taking on responsibilities for the community that we cannot.”
To apply, contact the county commissioners’ office at 360-397-2232.
Many vacant offices
Mark McCauley, the county director who oversees public properties, said it wouldn’t have made sense to sell the Eighth Street building, known as the Dolle Building, for an estimated $3.4 million.
The building is still more than half full of paying tenants.
“We get between $250,000 and $300,000 a year in rent,” McCauley said.
That’s a 7.4 percent annual return, far above current interest rates.
The county is still a tenant in some downtown buildings, such as the Children’s Justice Center and Family Court. But McCauley said the county couldn’t have moved those services to the Dolle Building without a $1 million remodel, plus compensating the county’s current landlord for a previous remodel.
The county has plenty of unused office space downtown. Staff cuts in the last two years have left its six-story Public Service Center, built for $22 million in 2002, about 10 to 15 percent empty, McCauley estimated.
McCauley said the Public Service Center was not overbuilt. He expects county payrolls to rebound in the next few years.
That’s contrary to the county budget office’s latest predictions, which expect payrolls to keep shrinking until 2013.
But for now, the county’s spare space is a boon for Webster, the Dream Big Community Center’s executive director. He’s overjoyed that two desks in downtown Vancouver might cost him only $350 to $500 a month, counting utilities and upkeep.
That’s the kind of budget a young nonprofit can afford.
“Any time someone has found out or learned about who we are, everyone supports it,” Webster said. “Our donations have quadrupled this year, and people are expecting more out of us.”
To support the Dream Big Community Center, call Webster’s cell phone: 360-904-5539.
Michael Andersen: 360-735-4508 or michael.andersen@columbian.com.
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