COMMERCE CITY — At least 2 acres of the old Mile High Greyhound Park will soon be home to a new Boys & Girls Club building, the club’s first new facility in the metro area since 2006.
City officials announced this morning that the Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver will be the city’s first redevelopment partner for the park, which the city purchased for $3.3 million in August.
“This is a first step toward a long-term, sustainable partnership that will benefit metro Denver for years to come,” Commerce City Mayor Paul Natale said.
Natale said the city has been in negotiations with the non-profit for at least five years to build somewhere in the city. The Greyhound Park is considered an ideal location, Natale said.
The new space is expected to triple the number of children served in Commerce City.
Currently, 600 youth are served at the temporary space provided by Adams 14 School District at Kearney Middle School. With 83 percent of district students eligible for a free or reduced lunches, the services offered by the Boys & Girls Clubs serves as an important niche for district youth, said Adams 14 Superintendent Sue Chandler.
“The expansion of the Boys and Girls Club means expanded enrichment opportunities for our students,” Chandler said.
Congressman Ed Perlmutter secured a $166,000 appropriations from the U.S. Department of Housing & Urban Development specifically for the project. Nearly $140,000 will be put toward the construction of the new facility, while more than $25,000 will be used for architectural design and planning.
Suncor Energy, a major Commerce City employer, has long supported the Boys & Girls Club facility at Kearney Middle School and will continue that support with the new building, said Nancy Thonen, Suncor’s director of product supply and refinery sales.
Suncor will contribute $1 million for the new building and will chip in about $100,000 annually for operating costs, Thonen said.
Commerce City will also start funding some of the operating costs of the new building -—located on the corner of 62nd Street and Holly Avenue — in 2012 with an initial $80,000 outlay. But the city will also ask the community to match those dollars as part of a capital campaign for the facility.
“We will use those dollars as a community challenge grant for the capital campaign, matching resident contributions dollar-for-dollar up to $250,000,” Natale said.
The new facility is likely to attract about 1,800 members with about 250 kids using it on a daily basis, said John Arigoni, President & CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Metro Denver.
“We salute and thank the leadership in Commerce City for their commitment to children,” Arigoni said.
Monte Whaley: 720-929-0907 or mwhaley@denverpost.com
