Hispanic Center expanding with purchase of former church
GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) — The Hispanic Center of Western Michigan is expanding in a Grand Rapids neighborhood with the city’s largest Latino population.
The center has purchased The Edge Urban Fellowship church for $450,000, less than the $550,000 listing price. The church, located at 735 Ritzema Court SW, closed last year.
The Hispanic Center plans to renovate the church and turn it into a multipurpose site, likely including educational programming. The center’s president, Evelyn Esparza-Gonzalez, said it will be a “second home” for the center.
It’s right down the street from the Hispanic Center’s headquarters on Cesar E. Chavez Ave SW. It’s all part of the Roosevelt Park neighborhood, which Esparza-Gonzalez says is nearly 70% Latino.
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“The Latino community just continues to grow, especially in Kent County,” she said. “We’re the largest minority right now.”
In 2022, Grandville Avenue was renamed for Cesar E. Chavez, the Latino civil rights leader and activist. The neighborhood is bustling with Latino-owned businesses and Cesar E. Chavez Elementary School, which is right next to the former church.
Amy Brower, the executive director of the Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association, said the area is a melting pot of culture. She referenced Rumsey Street SW as a uniquely multicultural area.
“English, Spanish, French, Swahili, Rwandan, just a variety of different cultures represented,” she said.
Esparza-Gonzalez said the neighborhood has long been the Latino community’s first stop to access services, which is one reason why they purchased property in the area. The center currently leases property at 401 Hall Street for language services and space for administrative staff. Additionally, the center also utilizes the Covenant House for two preschool classrooms. It aims to stop leasing both locations and move all center programming to its headquarters and the renovated church.
“We want to make sure we continue to be in a place where they feel comfortable in a neighborhood where they feel welcome, so they can access the services they need,” Esparza-Gonzalez said.
The Roosevelt Park Neighborhood Association said nearly half of the residents in the area are under the age of 17, reflecting the community’s continued and future growth.
“Although right now it’s predominately Latino and African American, 100 years ago it was very much Dutch-immigrant,” Brower said. “We’re continuing to see the demographics of the neighborhood change and see the reflection of the diversity and the different languages spoken in the neighborhood.”
Brower also noted the large amount of road construction in the area.
“(It’s really going to improve the streetscape, it’s going to slow traffic, it’s gonna make it seem like a safer place for pedestrians and drivers to go through,” she said.
Esparza-Gonzalez aims to put preschool classrooms and after-school programming at the church. Residents may also be able to obtain their GED in Spanish and receive digital literacy classes at the new center.
It will also have space for community partners to provide services to the Latino community. Epsarza-Gonzalez said the center does not have programming for mental health services and domestic violence survivors, so it has already partnered with Safe Haven Ministries to fill those gaps.
Esparza-Gonzalez said plans for the center may change after community feedback. She said the Hispanic Center plans to seek out residents’ opinions at August’s Hispanic Festival.
The church is more than a century old. Esparza-Gonzalez said it will need a lot of work from the parking lot to the roof. It’s estimated it could cost between $4 and $5 million to renovate the church, but the Hispanic Center has already made progress. It received a $1 million grant last year from the Michigan Department of Labor and Economic Opportunity through its Community Center Grant program.
The center is working with Chicago-based IFF, a community development financial institutions fund, to come up with a timeline for construction. It’s currently unclear when the renovations will start and end, but the Hispanic Center is already working on starting a capital fundraising campaign.
Not far from the new center, the West Michigan Chamber of Commerce is building a $9.5 million new headquarters on Godfrey Avenue NW. The chamber intends to turn a former manufacturing building into a new hub for Latino business leaders across the region.
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