The Salvation Army has approved the construction of a $29 million community center in downtown Greenville, S.C., local newspaper The Greenville News reported this month. The center, the Salvation Army Ray & Joan Kroc Center, is one of 31 like it that have been proposed by the Salvation Army.
The 72,000-square-foot center, which broke ground on Dec. 10, will be named for McDonald's founder Ray Kroc and his wife, Joan, who left $1.5 billion to the Salvation Army when she died—the largest single gift ever given to a private charity—for the express purpose of building "state-of-the-art recreational and arts facilities in underserved communities throughout the nation." Upon completion in spring 2011, it will have a 300-seat conference center, a 300-seat performing arts theater, a six-lane swimming pool, a full gymnasium, 16 tennis courts and a Boys & Girls Club facility to serve 250 children every day.
"We see the potential for this being phase one of a beautiful new park along the Reedy River," Greenville Mayor Knox White told The Greenville News, adding that the facility will usher in a new phase of growth for the city and create "tremendous opportunity for development" along the edges of West Greenville.
The Salvation Army currently operates six Kroc Centers across the country in Ashland, Ohio; Atlanta; Coeur d'Alene, Idaho; Omaha, Neb.; Salem, Ore.; and San Francisco. Seven more centers are scheduled to open in 2010 in Dayton, Ohio; Grand Rapids, Mich.; Green Bay, Wis.; Kerrville, Texas; Philadelphia; Quincy, Ill.; and South Bend, Ind. These will be followed in 2011 by six centers in Boston; Chicago; Greenville, S.C.; Memphis; Phoenix; and Honolulu. Opening dates are to be determined for six more planned sites in Augusta, Ga.; Biloxi, Miss.; Camden, N.J.; Staten Island, N.Y.; Puerto Rico; and Norfolk, Va.