Agape Center expanding into new building

The Agape Center is on the move. The nonprofit's board of directors has placed a contract on a historic lake-area property, Moneta Dress Corp., aka "the old Moneta dress factory," that will almost double the nonprofit's space:

Sue Lipscomb, Agape's executive director, said volunteers already have begun moving items into the new facility, which has 21,000 square feet, 9,000 more than Agape's current building near Moneta Elementary School. The extra space will be used to expand every sector of Agape's ministry including its food pantry, furniture and appliance storage, and Christmas store, said Lipscomb.

The new space also will allow for eight rooms to be used for individual Christ-centered mentoring for the 450-plus families Agape serves, said Lipscomb. Currently, Agape has five mentoring rooms, three of which only can be accessed via an outdoor stairwell.

In addition to indoor space, the new facility comes with 5 acres of land which could be utilized for expanded ministries such as community gardens, said Lipscomb.

John Safarik, president of the board of directors, said the exchange should close by May 1. He said he hopes to receive a partial certificate of occupancy by June or July so Agape can begin offering all services at its new location this summer.

To make the move, Agape launched a building campaign on Dec. 16. A total of $450,000 must be raised - $400,000 for the building and $50,000 for the first stage of renovations, said Safarik.

"This whole thing is more than four times than we normally spend in a year," he said.

Lipscomb said Agape will rely on volunteers to help with renovations in order to keep the costs down. She said new volunteers are welcome to join in.

"It's amazing what this project is doing," said Lipscomb. "New churches are wanting to come on board and new volunteers are coming in."

The best part of the whole thing, said Lipscomb, is the new facility's location: It's on Promised Land Road.

For more information about Agape or to volunteer, call Sue Lipscomb at 520-0911.