By Lydia Wheeler
lydia.wheeler@insidebiz.com
The Kroc Center, which took 10 years and $40.25 million to build, will open next week.
The 92,000-square-foot community center at 1401 Ballentine Blvd. in Norfolk has an indoor pool with lap lanes and water slides, a 400-seat chapel that doubles as a theater, a banquet hall with a full-service kitchen and catering staff, meeting rooms, a gymnasium and a fitness center.
The community center is the 26th of its kind in the country. It's named after the late Ray Kroc, the founder of McDonald's, and his widow Joan Kroc, who donated $90 million to build the first facility in San Diego, Calif., and bequeathed another $1.5 billion to the Salvation Army for additional centers after her death in October 2003. The 27th Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center is under construction now in Camden, N.J.
In order to get a facility off the ground in Norfolk, the Salvation Army was required to raise $28 million in local endowments. An additional $40.25 million for the endowment, which matched construction costs, came from the Krocs' donation.
Thanks to the late Joshua Darden Jr., the local philanthropist and former business leader who led the fundraising efforts, the Salvation Army raised a little more than $27 million through donations from business leaders like Charles Barker of Barker Automotive, and Frank Batten Jr., CEO of Landmark Media Enterprises LLC. Landmark is the parent company of The Virginian-Pilot and Inside Business.
"We have $1 million more to go," said Capt. Brett Meredith, the center's administrator.
Meredith is hoping the Kroc Center will become a regional draw that revolutionizes the surrounding Broad Creek neighborhood. Three years after the first Kroc Center was built in California, he said the Salvation Army did a community impact study and found that hundreds of new businesses had opened around the center.
"This is going to be at the forefront of business in Hampton Roads in the future," Meredith said. "We have room for business meetings and annual company conferences. We can seat up to 500 in the gymnasium and 200 in the community room."
The facility has 100 employees and an annual operating budget of $5.5 million; 40 percent is expected to be covered by the endowment. The remaining 60 percent will come from memberships, programs, facility rentals and food.
Memberships are $48 a month for a single person, $70 a month for an adult plus one other person and $85 a month for a family with two adults and four children. The rates are cheaper than area YMCAs, which charge $63 a month for individuals, $78 a month for married couples and $91 a month for families. There are 500 members signed up now, a fraction of the 4,000 members the Salvation Army hopes to gain in its first year.
There are scholarships available for those who qualify, but no membership will be entirely free.
"We want people to pay a little something," said Dan Cawley, director of public relations at DIA Inc., the Norfolk-based marketing firm hired to promote the Kroc Center.
Opening day for members is April 28, but events begin on April 24 with the 2014 Hope Gala, which is expected to raise $100,000 for member scholarships. An open house will follow from 9 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday and from 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday.
For more information, log onto www.HamptonRoadsKroc.org.