MOUNT VERNON — Habitat for Humanity Knox County is the latest company to join Heartland Commerce Park.
The organization bought what is known locally as the engineering building on the former Siemens campus for $900,000. Land bank and Habitat officials closed the deal on Sept. 27.
The organization has been looking for a home since before Terry Shultz became executive director three-and-a-half years ago.
Shultz said the purchase means everything.
“For 38 years, Habitat in Knox County has educated homeowners on the importance of home ownership. We have operated during that time without a place that as an organization we can call home on a permanent basis,” he said.
“This opportunity to take a building that has been such an integral part of Mount Vernon and Knox County for so long and make it our permanent and future home … will have a huge impact on what Habitat is currently doing.”
“There’s a connection to this building. We’re excited to give the community a touch point.”
terry shultz, executive director Habitat for Humanity Knox County
Shultz said having a facility the organization can grow into enables Habitat to serve all of Knox County better.
“We will always be in the home construction business, but it’s an opportunity to expand our repair program to make sure our homeowners are not only prepared to become homeowners but also prepared to become neighborhood members and help build communities,” he said.
All-in-one location
Habitat staff and board members have historically met at different locations. For the past 3.5 years, they met at the YMCA. The ReStore is on Wooster Road. Habitat holds homeowner and staff training at board members’ businesses.
Habitat solved those problems by acquiring what staff and volunteers call “Habitat Headquarters.”
Shultz said the West Chestnut Street purchase is an all-in-one location that will fundamentally improve the organization’s work in the community.
“You’re not going to have to wander from the edge of Mount Vernon on Route 3 to find out what Habitat is doing,” he said.
“It’s all going to be encompassed in 34,000-square-feet of space one block from downtown Mount Vernon.”
The building is more than three times the size of its current location. The additional space means Habitat can accept more donations.
More donations enable homeowners to buy more items from ReStore at discounted prices to maintain their homes.
It also means increased efficiency.
“It’s going to be a buildup, but we have the room to do wall builds inside in a dry, heated environment,” he said. “We’ll solve our moving from site to site by having one location easily accessed by whichever construction team will be working.”
First on the agenda
Habitat for Humanity Knox County leases the Wooster Road location. The plan is to end that lease by the end of December. Shultz noted the lease is flexible, and timing depends on how quickly workers complete renovations.
First on the agenda is moving ReStore to West Chestnut Street. Habitat will also move its offices and construction storage.
“We’ll start running sales at our current location and start taking donations to the new facility in the next couple of weeks,” Shultz said.
“The goal is to reopen the ReStore in January in the West Chestnut location. As we go, we’ll inform the public where to donate.
“We hope to accept donations during our regular hours still, and we still plan on doing pickup for individuals to donate household items,” he added. “We’re also waiting on some of the projects happening around Heartland Commerce Park to wrap up so that our donors have easy access to make donations.”
Shultz anticipates crews will wrap up the paving work on the east and west sides of the building around Thanksgiving.
The next step is renovating a training center.
“The training center is the opportunity to work with families and the rest of the community hosting financial education and home maintenance education classes — classes that we really hope to be beneficial to the entire community,” Shultz explained.
Shultz said the Knox County Career Center is interested in using the space for educating building and trades students and other programs. The training center will have a separate entrance.
Paying it forward
Creating office and community space for nonprofits is the last phase of renovations. That area includes a common area, separate entry on the building’s west side, and upstairs space.
“We’ve been so fortunate for so many years to be given the opportunity to use space in other places. This is an opportunity to pay it forward,” Shultz said.
The goal is to help nonprofits to grow by offering affordable, stable office space close to downtown.
It will also be a place for the community. Shultz cited Habitat’s location across the street from the future Knox Area Transit hub as an advantage.
“They’re not only going to have access to Habitat for Humanity, but nonprofits will be there to serve the community,” he said of KAT riders. “Someone who needs assistance can get all of it in a centralized location.”
Shultz said Habitat will charge rent to the nonprofits, but the organization does not plan to make rental fees a significant revenue stream.
“It’s more about kindness for helping us during our 38 years of existence,” he said.
The fabric of Mount Vernon
A Property Owners Association governs Heartland Commerce Park and will handle snow removal, streets, parking lots, and other maintenance items. Shultz said that relieves a lot of stress on Habitat staff and volunteers.
“That was certainly a reason that we looked at and ended up in Heartland Commerce Park, because the benefits of having all those things together as a community outweighs having everything hired out individually,” he said.
Shultz said Habitat for Humanity Knox County is excited to be part of the commerce park.
“Cooper-Bessemer, Rolls-Royce, and Siemens have been part of the fabric of what makes Mount Vernon Mount Vernon,” he said. “We have volunteers who worked at the plant. We have people whose parents worked at the plant.
“The public is going to be welcomed into the ReStore, into the building where they’ve had family employed, where they have some history of the building that served the community in so many different ways over the years.
“There’s a connection to this building. We’re excited to give the community a touch point.”
After Knox County Land Bank and Habitat officials signed the purchase documents on Friday, Habitat board members toured the facility.
