A St. Albert non-profit group has achieved what few do — home ownership — and could serve as a model for others, says its executive director.
Transitions unveiled its new headquarters in Campbell Business Park on Thursday. The $3.2-million building is the culmination of years of talking, dreaming and diligently salting away money.
It’s also a partnership with government and service clubs, said executive director Paul Fujishige.
“The board talked about building for at least a decade. It was a dream of having our own place rather than having to rent,” he said. “Everything lined up right.”
The availability of government grants, land and building trades, all contributed to the project’s success, he said.
The province chipped in $1.27 million and the City of St. Albert contributed $150,000.
Many local service groups, particularly the St. Albert Progress Club, also helped make the building happen. But one of the keys was Transitions’ own ability to stockpile $600,000 of its own money by salting away extra money like GST rebates, casino earnings and interest.
“Nothing taken away from clients or staff. It was all extra,” said board treasurer Laszlo Szojka. “Most not-for-profits can’t do that because they don’t how to do it.”
One of the factors that made the organization look at owning its own building was the rising cost of leasing.
“It was actually getting more expensive than to build and pay a mortgage,” Szojka said. “We thought, let’s raise money over a number of years, save it up. And we did that.”
“Perhaps that’s a model for other not-for-profits to be able to do the same thing,” Fujishige said.
The facility has many offices, several meeting rooms, a kitchen and computer work stations for off-site employees or family members. It’s much better equipped to handle the ongoing in-house training the organization does, Fujishige said.
At 15,000 sq. ft., the facility is nearly double the space that Transitions had been leasing. The new building also has space for lease and room for expansion.
“With the grants we were able to build a little bit bigger than what we needed to be able to build for the future,” Fujishige said.
Transitions provides services to people with developmental disabilities. Many such organizations, when designing their headquarters, include workshops or gathering places for their clients, but Transitions purposely steered clear of such facilities.
“People are far better out in the community than a segregated place,” Fujishige said.
The building does have two rooms that can be rented out to local groups for meetings, an attempt to make the building and the organization more a part of the community.
“Transitions has always been in the background and maybe this is our coming out,” said board chair Kathryn Morrow.
It’s uncommon for non-profits to own their own building but it certainly has advantages, said Blair Lundy, chair of the Edmonton region board for Persons with Developmental Disabilities.
“They can offer these services and programs at the very highest level because the facility was planned for that,” he said. “That’s a huge advantage.”
