Carbondale Community nonprofit Center

 


 

 
Slideshow
 
Updates Tenants Articles Resources Board Contacts

The Carbondale Community nonprofit Center (C3) project is a joint effort between the Town of Carbondale, SCoR and the RFCDC to renovate the old Carbondale Elementary School into a green facility that maintains affordable space for community and regional nonprofit organizations.

The SCoR/CDC is currently working in pre-development partnership with the Town of Carbondale on the programming, financing, and ownership/management structure for the facility.

Project Overview (PDF)

CES Naming / Branding

Summary Document

Courtesy:

Green Design Charrette
April 24th
Summary Report coming soon

See slideshow

Overview [click for full image]

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Initial C3 Board of Directors

Stacey Bernot
Town of Carbondale representative
Town Trustee


Richard Fuller Community Member
Alpine Bank, Carbondale

Laura Kirk
SCoR Board Vice-President
DHM Design, Carbondale

Dan Miller
SCoR Board member
Retired attorney, Jones Day

Michael McVoy
 RFCDC Board Member
Manaus Fund Board Member

Craig Rathbun
Community Member
The Fleisher Company, Carbondale

George Stranahan
RFCDC Board Member
Manaus Fund Board Member

Alternates:

Shane Evans
Structural Associates Company

Colin Laird
Healthy Mountain Communities
& Roaring Fork CDC

 

SCoR/CDC Development Team

Gavin Brooke, Land & Shelter, 963-0201
Jeff Dickinson, Energy & Sustainable Design, 963-0114
Colin Laird, Roaring Fork CDC, 963-5502

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Current Facility:

 

Conceptual changes to the facility:

April 24, 2008 Green Charrette:

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CES Project Updates:

 June 2008

Dear Friends of CES:

We hope you are all enjoying the warmer weather. Summer, it seems has finally arrived in the mountains.

We wanted to give you a quick update on our efforts:

Although there remain a lot of moving parts to this project, we are thrilled to announce that the expected closing date for the land swap between RE-1 and the Town of Carbondale is August 15th. Simultaneously, the Carbondale Community Center will sign a long term lease from the Town for the building and the property. The C3 development team is extremely excited to share this news with you.

CES Clean-up Day
In preparation for the land swap and the master lease between the Town and C3, we are hosting a short clean-up day at CES on Saturday, June 28 from 9-11am.  There have been a number of broken windows and the weeds have gotten a little tall since the end of the school year so we want to tidy up a bit and begin to create more a presence at the facility. We would love your help in beginning to caretake this building together.

Please join us if you can.  Bring gloves, hats and a bottle of water and we can spruce the place up a little.  (If you have a gas weedwacker we can borrow, please give us a call, other helpful items- brooms, trash bags, a few hand tools, irrigation system know-how would all be greatly appreciated.)

C3 Brown Bag Lunches
Another way to increase the people presence at CES is to hold monthly brown bag lunches at CES. Starting on Thursday, July 3 from 12-1pm, the Development team invites you all to join us for an informal brown bag lunch to discuss the project and answer any specific questions you might have.  The C3 Board of Diectors already holds it meetings at CES and we thought it would be good to begin to use the building more as we head toward construction. 

Summertime regards,

The Carbondale Community Center (C3 for now) Development Team:

Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR (963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation (963-5502)

www.roaringforkcdc.org/ces.htm

 

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May 2008

Just a quick update on ongoing work related to CES.

Naming Update

Many of you attended the naming party and past/ future users meeting where Craig Wheeless and Erin Rigney of Rainy Day Designs ran through an abbreviated naming branding session for the new nonprofit center.

Craig and Erin have now complied the information from these sessions into a summary document, which you can download from the CES website.

RDD has taken the most popular names to date, such as C3 and the Third Street Center, and they are currently exploring how to merge them, expand them or create an entirely different name based on all the input gathered to date. They will present the 2-3 names with definitions and/or taglines as well as URL options in the coming weeks.

Thanks again to Rainy Day Designs for donating their time and expertise!

 

Green Design Charrette

In case you missed the article, the Green Design Charrette was covered in the April 25 edition of the Aspen Daily News.

 

Roughly 50 local designers toured the building then rolled up their sleeves and discussed, drew, and made connections to green up the building (changes to be built with fundraising above and beyond the base building construction loan). Thanks to everyone who was able to participate!


You can view pictures from the event on line at www.roaringforkcdc.org/ces.htm.  A full report, which will support the green gap fundraising, will be forthcoming.


charrette

Timeline

The Town or Carbondale and the Roaring Fork School District Boards will have a joint meeting this month to discuss issues relating to the land swap, nonprofit center, and affordable housing.  This meeting promises to resolve some issues relating to the transfer of title from the school to the town that can help the nonprofit center project to continue to move forward. We are still on track to have the building  under master lease from the town this summer to allow the construction phase to begin shortly thereafter.

Warm regards,


The Carbondale Community Center (C3 for now) Development Team:

Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR (963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation (963-5502)

www.roaringforkcdc.org/ces.htm

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 March 2008

Dear Friends of CES:

Please join us!

The Carbondale Community Center (C3) Development Team is hosting a meeting on Tuesday, March 18 from 4-6pm at the old Carbondale Elementary School. 

This interactive event will focus on what the community wants the building to become.  Share your experiences of how CES was used in the past, what was good, and what could be improved upon with architectural team members.

If you are interested in being a future tenant or facility user, join us and share your ideas for what the spaces could look and feel like.  Share your ideas for how to use both the small and large spaces in the building and join in the fun of re-visioning this community facility.

Please RSVP to Andi Korber (andi@landandshelter.com / 970-963-0201).

Warm regards,

The Carbondale Community Center (C3 for now) Development Team:

Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR (963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation (963-5502)

www.roaringforkcdc.org/ces.htm

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 February 2008

Dear Friends of CES:

Mark your calendar!
March 6th, 2008  5:30-7:30 pm @ the Carbondale Community Center (C3) (old Carbondale Elementary School - CES).


The CES redevelopment team is pleased to announce that Rainy Day Designs will be donating a year of marketing/graphic design services to the adaptation project.

As part of this work - Rainy Day Designs will be helping us find a name and an identity for our community center.

This is about you - the tenants and users creating your place.

Please join us, on March 6, 2008, & Craig Wheeless of Rainy Day Designs, for some pizza, pop, project overview, and pleasant brainstorming.

Bring your thoughts about what you want this great community asset to become.

Please RSVP to Andi Korber (andi@landandshelter.com / 970-963-0201).

Warm regards,

The Carbondale Community Center (C3 for now) Development Team:

Gavin Brooke - Land+Shelter (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson - Energy & Sustainable Design & SCoR (963-0114)
Colin Laird - Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation (963-5502)

Next up on the calendar: March 18th, 4-6pm, at CES: past & present users meeting. Calling all past and present users of the CES building to share their insights with the architectural team.

www.roaringforkcdc.org/ces.htm

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 January 2008

Thanks for your interest in the CES project and the Town of Carbondale's efforts to renovate the old Carbondale Elementary School into a dynamic, green, community based, multi-tenant, nonprofit community facility.

As you may know, this project is in the pre-development phase until the Roaring Fork School District's property can be subdivided and swapped with town property near the new high school.  Once the land swap is complete, the
Sustainability Center of the Rockies (SCoR) /Roaring Fork Community Development Corporation (RFCDC) team will work with the Town of Carbondale to developed the project. 

In the meantime, the SCoR/CDC team has individually met with a number of you about your organization's space needs, begun preliminary programming for the building, completed the preliminary architectural analysis for the renovation of the facility, and analyzed a number of scenarios to finance the project at an affordable cost. 

At the recent Economic Roadmap meeting (Dec. 6), the SCoR/CDC team posted some conceptual drawings that illustrate some of the potential improvements to CES. (Some of the images are posted at www.roaringforkcdc.org/ces.htm)

The SCoR/ CDC team submitted a preliminary development plan for CES, which the Town Trustees accepted on Dec. 5th.  Recommended next steps that the SCoR/CDC team will be working on in early 2008 include:

  • Drafting development memorandum of understanding (MOU) between the Town and the SCoR/CDC Team based on the findings in this predevelopment plan. 
     
  • Creating the Carbondale Community Corporation, LLC. to redevelop, own and operate the Center.
     
  • Drafting development agreement and land lease between the Town and the Community Corporation for the redevelopment of CES. 
     
  • Confirming financing commitments to date.

Tentative timeline:  The school district is currently using portions of the CES building for Bridges High School.  This use will continue through June.  Consequently, June is the earliest month in which we could begin the renovations.  Design work is slated to begin this spring, with construction beginning in the summer and taking approximately one year.  As with all the timelines to date, this one is subject to negotiations between the Town and School district, so it is only an estimate.

We look forward to moving into the next phase of this effort soon and working with each of you to make CES an exciting community asset.

In the coming months, we will host a CES Update meeting with tenants to keep you posted on progress relating to the project.

In the meantime, please feel free to forward this email to any individuals and/or organizations interested in CES whom we have not already contacted. 

Thanks for your interest in this project.  Please contact one of the development team if you have any questions.

Happy New Year,

SCoR/CDC Team
Gavin Brooke (963-0201)
Jeff Dickinson (963-0114)
Colin Laird (963-5502)

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Tenants:

Interested in being a tenant in the Center?

Fill out the tenant survey [word version / PDF version] and return it to Gavin Brooke.

No decisions have been made concerning space and square footage in the facility. To have your organization considered for a space in the Center, please send a $500 refundable deposit to C3 Development Team, c/o Land + Shelter, POB 550, Carbondale, CO 81623. Please make the check payable to "Town of Carbondale."    Questions?  Call Gavin at 963-0201.

This deposit does not guarantee a space in the Center given the other potential tenants to date, but it will ensure your organization is included in all tenant meetings and updates and considered for space as it is available. You will be notified of upcoming tenant meetings in the coming months concerning the re-design of the facility, construction schedules, and tenant selection and space allocation.

Potential Tenant List - 4.28.2008

Organization Name Type of Organization Optimized SF Total SF
Aspen Valley Community Foundation For Profit               450           900
Carbondale Council Arts & Humanities Non Profit          3,000     12,000
Carbondale Soccer Club Non Profit               400           400
SCOR Non Profit               300           300
Healthy Mountain Communities Non Profit               150           150
KDNK Community Access Radio Non Profit           2,500        3,500
Lift-Up (Carbondale) Non Profit               900           900
Mountain Valley Developmental Services Non Profit               900        1,200
Commuinty Office for Resource Efficiency (CORE) Non Profit               900           900
Solar Energy International Non Profit           1,200        4,000
Waldorf School of The Roaring Fork (pre-school) Non Profit               900           900
Youth Zone Non Profit               200           200
Carbondale Community Food Coop Community           4,000        4,000
Grassroots TV Non Profit           3,500        4,500
Aspen Affiliate of Susan G. Komen for the Cure Non Profit               450           900
Carbondale Community Kitchen For Profit           1,273        1,273
Sandy Kaplan Photography For Profit               900           900
Senior Matters...Because Seniors Matter Non Profit           1,800        4,500
Gravity Works - dba Thunder River Gymnastics For Profit           3,000        3,000
Institute for Civic Achievement, Inc Non Profit               450           900
Kahhak Fine Arts & School Artist               450           900
Feisty Females For Profit               450           900
Frederick Pulver Enterprises For Profit               400           900
Crystal River Ballet For Profit           2,000        2,000
A Spiritual Center Non Profit               900           900
Kids First Non Profit               400           600
Access Roaring Fork (local TV) Non Profit               400           900
Artist Spaces Artist           1,800        3,600
New Century Transportation Foundation Non Profit               150           150
Governor's Energy Office (GEO)  Non Profit               150           150
Wilderness Workshop Non Profit               500           500
Totals           34,773     56,823

 

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Resources:

The NonprofitCenters Network
The NonprofitCenter Network is a community of Multi-tenant Nonprofit Centers and their philanthropic, government, academic and real estate partners. Through conferences, peer networking, mentoring and the internet, The Network provides education and resources for the creation and operation of quality nonprofit office and program space.

Cascadia Region Green Building Council
Living Building Challenge

The Cascadia Region Green Building Council (Cascadia) is issuing a challenge to all building owners, architects, engineers, and design professionals to build in a way that will provide all of us and our children with a sustainable future. The Living Building Challenge is attempting to raise the bar and define a true measure of sustainability in the built environment, at least as far as what is currently possible and given the best knowledge available to-date. Projects that achieve this level of performance can claim to be the most sustainable in North America and not merely less bad.

 

Similar projects from across the country:

Red Brick Center for the Arts, Aspen, CO

The Smiley Center, Durango, CO

The Thoreau Center for Sustainability, San Francisco, CA

Alliance for Sustainable Colorado, Denver, CO

Nonprofit Center, Boston, MA

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Articles on the project:


May 15, 2008
 

Groups lining up for nonprofits center space

Jeremy Heiman
The Valley Journal

With efforts to redevelop the former Carbondale Elementary School proceeding briskly, the demand is growing for space in the building once it is converted into a base for nonprofit organizations.

The project, now known as the Carbondale Community Center, or C3, has a list on its website of about 30 groups that have ponied up a $500 deposit in order to be considered as prospective tenants in the building.

The building is in the hands of the town of Carbondale, thanks to a property swap last year with the Roaring Fork School District [note: the land swap actually has not been completed as of this article]. The Carbondale trustees have invited the Sustainability Center of the Rockies to help with the redevelopment and hired SCoR members Jeff Dickinson and Gavin Brooke, both architects, along with the Roaring Fork Community Development Corp. to create a green development plan for CES.

Local nonprofits that have put down a deposit on space in the yet-to-be redeveloped elementary school site have different reasons for moving there, and different levels of urgency in their desire to do so.

Some are attracted to the idea of working close to other nonprofits and sharing ideas, energy and assets. Others, perhaps victims of local real estate prices, are looking for more affordable digs. Others, such as YouthZone, see the center as an opportunity to have a greater presence in Carbondale. Several are considering the move for a combination of reasons.

CCAH can hardly wait

The Carbondale Council on Arts and Humanities is one of those groups hoping the refurbished elementary school is ready sooner rather than later. Ro Mead, executive director of CCAH, said the current Main Street headquarters of her organization is rented and the owner has put the building up for sale, so her organization has little security.

“It could be any day,” Mead said. Moreover, the existing gallery space is too small for teaching programs CCAH would like to do and also too small for some exhibits, she added.

“We can’t do any programs without renting space,” she said.

But perhaps most important, Mead said, the organization is looking forward to being in a space where it can grow, and to being neighbors with other nonprofit organizations such as Solar Energy International and radio station KDNK.

“We really want to build an arts center there,” she said. “We’ll be in the heart of it.”

Steve Skinner, station manager at community access radio station KDNK, said the station hasn’t decided for certain whether its future lies at the former elementary school. KDNK now co-owns its building on Second Street with Solar Energy International. So, making the decision to leave will be difficult.

“We’re waiting to find out if it makes financial sense,” Skinner said.

KDNK may need more room

One thing that would draw KDNK to the nonprofits center would be more room to plan for the future. But whether they jump on board or not, Skinner said the staff and board of directors at KDNK are excited about the possibilities presented by the center.

“All of us at KDNK are totally supportive of the project,” he said. They’re open to various levels of participation, including the possibility of just renting additional studio space.

“We’re definitely excited about it,” Skinner said. “We’ll be involved.”

A local organization that’s not quite so excited about the prospect of moving is the New Century Transportation Foundation, created to advance the cause of resource-efficient mobility choices, currently located in the SAW building. Alice Laird, NCTF director, said her organization is only thinking about the CES site as a place for future expansion.

“The SAW building works perfectly great,” Laird said.

Wilderness Workshop is much less equivocal about the idea of moving into the nonprofits center.

“We’re psyched to be part of the vibrancy that it will create, with all those nonprofits there,” said Sloan Shoemaker, Wilderness Workshop’s executive director.

Further, said Shoemaker, the idea of recycling the CES building is exciting, because it’s essentially a brownfields redevelopment project. Brownfields redevelopment is usually defined as a cleanup and redevelopment of an old industrial site, so CES isn’t quite the same, but it’s better in terms of land conservation than the previous location SCoR had chosen for a nonprofits center and business incubator. SCoR had an undeveloped site near CRMS under contract, but backed away from that plan last fall.

“The idea of greening it and making it more sustainable is really very exciting,” Shoemaker said.

Wilderness Workshop looks at long term

Other reasons come to mind as well for Shoemaker. The Wilderness Workshop’s current location, in a modular building on Main Street, may also be redeveloped at some time.

“We’re looking for long-term stability,” he said. “We’re looking to hunker down somewhere.”

Shoemaker also expects that being in close proximity to other nonprofits will increase his organization’s membership because of increased exposure to like-minded individuals.

And he expects the CES location to be relatively inexpensive, in a town that’s been hit by high rent for office space.

“I don’t see us finding a better deal than what we’ll find there,” he said.

Gary Goodson, director of the Community Office for Resource Efficiency, also sees multiple opportunities at the nonprofit cent