Salvation Army shapes plans for new La Salle Avenue campus

The project funded by a $20 million capital campaign will move and consolidate operations to La Salle Avenue, with the exception of the organization’s thrift store remaining on Waco Drive, Salvation Army of Waco Maj. Jim Taylor said during a presentation to the Waco City Council on Tuesday. With the city’s contribution, about $8 million is left to raise.

The Salvation Army’s history in Waco began in 1891, Taylor said.

The organization has made do with its downtown block between Webster and Clay avenues for the past 90 years, currently squeezing its Community Kitchen and Men’s Shelter, Fresh Start Reintegration Program, Sally’s House and warehouse between Third and Fourth streets. The downtown campus was originally the organization’s “spiritual home,” but as community needs have become more specialized, the plot has taken on several uses, Taylor said.

In the late 1950s The Salvation Army bought property at 12th Street and Gurley Avenue, now home to The Salvation Army Corps Church at 1225 S. Interstate 35 frontage road, which allowed for expansion of services on the Webster Avenue block. In 2008 the organization purchased a roller rink at 4721 W. Waco Drive, which became its thrift store, administration offices and social services center. The thrift store will remain on Waco Drive, while the rest of the operations will move to the new La Salle campus.

“So The Salvation Army was beginning to find ourselves spread out all over across Waco, and we just really needed to consolidate and find a way to get back to a place where it would be convenient for both clients and staff to access,” Taylor said. “… The Salvation Army has for the last 132 years shaped and reshaped our properties to meet the demands of our community and for the last several decades we’ve become more and more dislocated.”

In October 2019 the nonprofit partnered with Baylor University’s school of social work to conduct a survey of partner agencies, donors and local leaders, including many in the Heart of Texas Homeless Coalition, to determine the needs of Waco, Taylor said. He said the survey made three recommendations: consolidate services, increase housing for homeless families and provide a day shelter.

In searching for a location with visibility and accessibility large enough to consolidate spiritual, social and administrative services, The Salvation Army in September last year bought the 10-acre lot at 1324 La Salle Ave. from the city for $2 million. The city had bought the land the previous January for the purpose of selling it to The Salvation Army. The site came with a special use permit, requiring transportation, on-site security and privacy screening.

A site plan produced by RBDR PLLC-Architects uses the 4.5 acres closest to La Salle Avenue for two buildings, the Corps Community Center and the Center of Hope.

The Corps Community Center facing La Salle Avenue will house a church and administrative offices, with space for a chapel, Sunday school classrooms and fellowship areas, Taylor said. There will also be plenty of parking around both buildings, green space, a pavilion and a children’s playground.

The Center of Hope, tucked behind the community center and parallel to 12th Street, will house social services and housing units. Taylor said he is hoping to have a Waco Transit stop added on 12th Street allowing riders to exit onto a sidewalk leading to the facility.

There will be 15 family transitional apartments in one wing, and housing areas will be blocked off with a control center for residents’ security, Taylor said.

“This is where families who are homeless will be able to reside for … a year to a year and a half if necessary in order to get them to a place where they can be transitioned back into individual stable living,” he said.

Next to the family apartments is a single women’s shelter with 16 beds, as well as its own shower and laundry facilities. Separately, the facility will have a men’s shelter with 24 beds and the same amenities, totaling 40 single beds.

The Center of Hope’s kitchen will still serve daily meals to residents and passersby. Across from the kitchen will be social services offices for case managers, “so that instead of having to go uptown to see a case manager from Webster, they’ll be able to walk across the hall,” Taylor said.

At the opposite end of the facility from the apartments will be a 24/7 day center where individuals may spend the day if needed, fit with lockers for their belongings, showers and laundry, he said. The day center will have classrooms for financial management, GED or English as a second language classes, and two offices will be open to partner agencies, like the Heart of Texas Behavioral Network, he said.

“If they want to come and meet with some of their clients they can do so there instead of the client having to figure out how to get out to BHN,” Taylor said.

Pursuant to the facility’s special permit, it will have a police reporting area with its own entrance and office to provide security for the entire facility if necessary, he said.

The project’s capital campaign budget is $20 million, including some $18.4 million toward construction, $1.33 million toward an operating endowment and $300,000 toward campaign expenses.

As of November, the Salvation Army had secured about $10.9 million through the $4.9 million sale of William and Catherine Booth Garden Apartments on North 19th Street, $3.8 million in other property sales and about $2.2 million in donations and other funding sources.

McLennan Central Appraisal District records show the Booth apartments were transferred in January last year to National Church Residences. The Ohio-based nonprofit owns or operates 340 senior housing communities, home to more than 46,000 seniors in 25 states, according to its website.

The Salvation Army’s downtown properties totaling more than 4.6 acres, including the block on Webster and the church property along the interstate, were transferred in October last year to Canyon River Ranch LLC, appraisal district records show. Waco businessman Gordon Robinson, who has an ownership interest in several downtown-area commercial properties, is listed in state records as an agent for Canyon River Ranch LLC.

The Salvation Army will remain in its current facilities until it moves to La Salle, and a construction timeline is dependent on the capital campaign, Taylor said. He said he hopes to complete the campaign by June and begin construction by late summer or fall, as architects are currently working on design development.

“We’re still in need of about $9 million,” Taylor said. “The Salvation Army will allow us to break ground as soon as we have the money or the pledges for the money.”

The city council Tuesday also approved a total of $1 million in HOME-American Rescue Plan and American Rescue Plan Act funding for construction costs that would support 10 of the transitional housing units, according to the council packet.

Mayor Dillon Meek said he is concerned about the fast-moving traffic of La Salle Avenue and asked if there is a way to include landscaping or enforce a policy to deter people from congregating at the front of the Corps Community Center. Taylor said the inclusion of two separate buildings is intentional, with the majority of services administered at the back of the property.

“People should not be needing to come to the Corps Community Center or the administration office unless they’re there for business or church activities,” he said. “The rest would go down to the Center of Hope, and that’s where they would congregate.”

Council Member Alice Rodriguez reiterated her opposition to the site on La Salle Avenue and near student housing on 12th Street, asking for screening to block the view of the facility from the surrounding neighborhood.

Waco Planning Director Clint Peters said the facility’s special permit requires screening along 12th Street and there will be a row of landscaping along 12th Street between the sidewalk and the parking lot.