Non-Profit leaders across Waco gathered at The Avenue Nonprofit Center yesterday for an open house of the space.
The first floor is still under renovation, but the upper floors are ready for new nonprofit tenants. Natalie Kelinske, Senior Director of Communications for the Waco Foundation, said this is just the newest way Waco Founation is helping support nonprofits.
"It’s expanding our traditional nonprofit support into some of the more logistical things our nonprofits struggle with," she said.
The space houses offices that will be rented to nonprofits at low-cost. It also houses meeting rooms that nonprofits can use at no-cost.
"So the goal is to ease the burden on our nonprofit partners a little bit," Kelinske said. "So that they can use their funds that are very hard to come by for their programming."
The opening comes at a time when many nonprofits are at risk of losing funding from federal grants, like the $18million cancelled EPA grant affecting Mission Waco, World Hunger Relief and other nonprofits.
"We are here for our nonprofit partners to weather storms," Kelinske said. "We’ve done it over the last 70 years and we want them to know we are still here. We are with them."
The building was originally the First Federal Savings and Loan Bank, before being converted to office space. The Waco Foundation bought the building in 2023 for $3.8 million.
The first floor renovations will begin later this year. Kelinkse the redesign was completed with the city in mind, finding creative ways to share the story of Waco.
"You’ll notice the custom, suspension bridge chandelier. And you’ll notice the floor tile is beautiful, but also the pebbles inside of it come from the Brazos River," she said.
The board room will also contain decorative tiles by local artists and the community room will display historic newspaper articles.
"We want it to be the community’s building," Kelinske said.
The first floor will hold the permanent offices for Waco Foundation, plus a board room and community room designed for events. They hope to have renovations completed in about a year.
