Center for Human Development moving to The Rock building

The Center for Human Development, Inc., plans to transfer its services to a new facility by next year.

The property in question is where The Rock Bowling and Fun Center is currently sited, off Cove Avenue.

“It’s been a long journey to get to this point,” said Mark Kubin, CHD’s community relations coordinator.

CHD plans to finalize a deal with Steve Rzonca, who owns The Rock building and property, to purchase the bowling alley’s facility.

In a statement provided to The Observer, Rzonca said, “The Rock will continue to offer entertainment and great dining opportunities to the public at the present location for the fall and winter seasons.

“Presently, investors are being assembled to relocate the facility to a more convenient location.”

Steve Ryman, one of CHD’s coordinators on the project, said the center will attempt to accommodate this search. “We’ve tried to structure the offer in a way that allows him to stay in the facility until he finds a new one,” he said.

The Rock building is some 20,000 square feet in proportion, about 3,000 more than CHD’s present home in the Union County-owned Joseph Building on K Avenue. Ryman said the new digs would “barely meet” the center’s existing needs, but that there is room for expansion. The parking lot should be suitable as it stands, he said.

CHD is currently seeking funds to complete the sale and renovation, which Ryman estimated would cost between $3 million and $3.5 million. Ryman said the organization would apply for a community development block grant next year.

Last year, CHD expressed interest in a nine-acre property off L Avenue, but experienced much resistance from area residents during the application process for a conditional use permit.

“It was a beautiful vision,” said Ryman of that plan, which came to a halt in June 2007.

He said CHD took the lessons learned in the contentious process to heart, and began seeking properties in more commercial areas.

CHD won’t need to undergo a lengthy zoning process to move in to The Rock facility. Ryman said its location, lying close to the new transportation hub, the shuttle route and Community Connection, is ideal.

Since at least 2000, CHD has been investigating the possibility of moving to a new facility. As services have expanded and diversified, Kubin said, the current building, which CHD has occupied since 1987, has become more and more densely packed.

With a new facility, the center hopes it “can really put together holistic services for our clients,” he said.

If all goes as planned, CHD hopes to be up and running at the new site by fall of 2009, with the financial pieces in place by next spring.

The county, meanwhile, will seek a new tenant for Joseph Building, said Union County Commissioner Nellie Hibbert.

“We’re definitely going to be looking at somebody who could lease that facility,” Hibbert said.

“Of course, we’re happy for CHD,” she added. “I’m pleased for them and I’m hopeful for us.”