At the Breckenridge Town Council work session Tuesday, July 27, representatives from local nonprofits spoke to officials about their hopes and plans for a shared building in town.

As plans for the town’s McCain property continue to evolve, an open area at the corner of Coyne Valley Road and Colorado Highway 9, a 5-acre section of the property is being set aside for use by local nonprofits. The Family and Intercultural Resource Center, Building Hope and the Summit Community Care Clinic are recommending a shared 15,000-square-foot building on the proposed nonprofit campus.

While conversations with these organizations have been going on for some time, the town will now look to formalize an agreement with the groups.

Peter Joyce, a board member at the resource center, said he has found an architect and developer interested in taking on the project without charging the nonprofits any building fees. He emphasized that the three organizations looking to share the building have some overlap in their work, and having one central location would make their services more easily accessible. He said he’s also confident in the nonprofits’ abilities to raise funds for the project.

“We have the resources to see this project to the finish line,” Joyce said. “It’s something you can count on. If you do allow us to move forward with this project, we’ll see it to the end.”

Currently, the Family and Intercultural Resource Center has four locations throughout the county, three of which the organization owns. Joyce said the center would likely sell these properties in an attempt to bring operations to one central location.

Despite the potential move, the center plans to continue servicing the north side of the county in some form, most likely through a permanent or mobile food pantry. Though, the center’s Executive Director Brianne Snow said the majority of the center’s clients live and work in Breckenridge.

Snow said the center recently sent out a survey to 623 people who used its services in the past year, of which 280 responded.

“A lot of our clients are moving to Breck because a lot of the places that they were renting in Dillon Valley and Silverthorne are being sold,” Snow said. “People are shifting.”

Snow said the resource center would continue to support community members virtually, as well. Only 18% of survey respondents said they preferred in-person services over online services, and Snow said the center saw a higher rate of people making their appointments when they were online.

Joyce said the the building would provide space for the resource center’s food pantry, thrift store and administrative offices. It would also provide space for Building Hope’s administrative offices and exam rooms for the care clinic.

“The real benefit to make it more efficient is we can share a lot of the conference spaces, restrooms, break areas, reception areas,” Joyce said. “Those kinds of things allow us to do a lot of overlap, and it’ll be hopefully a lot more efficient.”

Joyce said he hopes the plans for this first building can serve as a template for other nonprofits that might move into the area. There are no plans for the rest of the nonprofit campus yet, but it could include as many as three 15,000-square-foot buildings. He also said they plan to keep council in the loop with any plans or decisions relating to the project.

“We’re fortunate enough to have enough horsepower among our groups to be able to push this thing forward,” Joyce said.

Town Manager Rick Holman said once an updated master plan is approved for the McCain property, the town can start to subdivide it and identify where the best spot for this building would be. He said the town would likely create some kind of long-term land lease for the nonprofits’ building on the site.