Some offices must leave Deming Center

Aug. 08--TERRE HAUTE -- A longtime agency located in downtown Terre Haute is looking for a new home.

The offices of FSA Counseling Center in the Deming Center building at Sixth and Cherry streets must be relocated, and executive director Janet McBride said a Dec. 31 deadline to vacate the current offices is approaching too fast.

"We are desperately looking for new space," McBride told the Tribune-Star on Thursday, sitting in her office that looks out on Cherry Street.

"We anticipate we will be out of here by the end of December. But for the last 30 years, we have been rent- and utility-free. This move is going to have a huge impact on us."

FSA Counseling is located in ground floor commercial space of the Deming Center, a residential property that was sold this year by the Terre Haute Housing Authority to Core Redevelopment, an Indianapolis company that specializes in rehabilitating historic buildings for modern residential use.

While FSA Counseling has been asked to move out of its long-time offices, tenants along Sixth Street -- Arts Illiana and the Terre Haute Symphony Orchestra -- have decided to remain in their shared space.

"We are going to be able to stay," THSO executive director Tiffani Schmidt told the Tribune-Star. "We don't know the details, but we are negotiating rent."

Jon Robeson, executive director of Arts Illiana, said that discussion with Core Redevelopment has included an expansion of the existing art gallery.

"We've shared this space at least 16 years, and we have a lot of foot traffic here," Robeson said.

With the current construction of ISU student housing across the street at Sixth and Wabash and the planned renovation of the Deming Center into student housing, the arts organizations will be well-placed.

"I think this will be a catalyst to bridge the downtown and campus," Robeson said. "It would be ideal to stay in the downtown for the nature of our constituents."

John Watson, CEO of Core Redevelopment, told the Tribune-Star that while he was able to work out a rental agreement with Arts Illiana and THSO, that did not happen with FSA Counseling.

"We weren't able to donate that space to them," Watson said of the rent-free status.

He said renovation will begin the day the building is vacated.

Plans call for creating mostly one-bedroom apartments as well as a few two-bedroom units to be rented at the market rate. While the housing will be well-suited for students from Indiana State University, the units will be open to the public.

The ground floor will contain commercial businesses. Watson said he is currently seeking a coffee shop tenant for the corner space in the building, and the FSA office space will be available as well.

The apartment building will also offer a fitness center.

For FSA Counseling, however, the move will be a challenge for the six full-time and six part-time staff members, not to mention the people who receive services from the United Way agency.

"Last year, we provided services to 1,098 individuals and families. That's up from only 653 in 2012. So the demand for our services continues to skyrocket," McBride said.

The mission of FSA Counseling Center is to improve the lives of individuals and families through affordable, quality counseling and education. The agency has served the Wabash Valley since at least 1862 and was incorporated in 1948.

Currently, the center provides therapy for mental health and substance abuse difficulties; prevention services; critical incident stress debriefing; parenting and anger management training; supervised visits; training and community presentations; and transparenting classes for divorcing parents with children. The center provides a certified domestic violence prevention program, and intervention and advocacy for victims of crime.

McBride said the agency hopes to stay downtown with good accessibility for the community. The current location does not have off-street parking, she said, so more parking is wanted for a new location.

McBride said the agency's board of directors has considered many locations since learning that a move was required, but no appropriate and affordable site has been located. The target size of a new location is about 3,000-square feet, which would provide room for more office and counseling spaces.

"If we had a larger space, we would like to hire more therapists, but our current location prohibits that," she said.

The agency receives 50 percent of its funding from grants, donations and United Way of the Wabash Valley. The remainder of its is funding from self-pay, insurance, Medicare and Medicaid clients.

McBride said that anyone wanting to donate to the fundraising campaign for a new location can donate online at www.fsacounsel

ing.org. Also a fundraiser golf outing is planned for Sept. 19 at the Rea Park golf course. For registration information, email [email protected] or call 812-232-4349.

Tribune-Star reporter Lisa Trigg can be reached at 812-231-4254 or [email protected]. Follow her on Twitter @TribStarLisa.

___

(c)2014 The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.)

Visit The Tribune-Star (Terre Haute, Ind.) at tribstar.com

Distributed by MCT Information Services