Nineteen Carroll County nonprofit organizations are settling in comfortably at their new digs, without worries about rent or utilities.
“Our tenants pay no rent, and we haven?t even discussed raising the amount they pay per year for utilities,” said Mark Krider, director of the Carroll Nonprofit Center in Westminster.
“We talked to community nonprofits and learned space and location were serious issues.”
The center, which has a waiting list for office space, broke ground in November 2004 and welcomed its first tenant in January.
The center was built by Anverse Inc. ? a private nonprofit fully funded by the family that owned Prestige Communications ? and charges no rent to its tenants.
“They did well here and are giving back to the communities where they did business,” said Audrey S. Cimino, executive director of the Community Foundation of Carroll County Inc., which moved its office to the center and funds endowments and scholarships in Carroll County.
As part of their leasing agreement with the center, tenants must be 501(c)3 nonprofits that serve Carroll County, and must reinvest the money they save on rent into their programs. The nonprofits pay $4 per square foot of space they occupy per year to pay the center back for the cost of utilities.
“We calculated the $4 amount based on estimates from BGE on similarly sized buildings, and so far, we are coming out even,”
Krider said.
“What they have done here is just amazing,” said Terri Chaplan, of the United Way of Central Maryland. “Having us all under one roof allows us to collaborate and speed up what once were time-consuming processes.”
Krider said the center plans to act as an incubator for area nonprofits, and, “with the resources we give them, they will grow and move out, allowing others to take advantage of what we offer.”
Some of the tenants:
Anverse Inc.
Carroll Technology Council
Catastrophic Health Planners
Child Care Choices
Community Foundation of Carroll County
Habitat For Humanity
Head Start of Carroll County
