New building to serve needs in Spa City
Franklin Community Center to close on deal for MASIE Center
Quarters are tight at the Franklin Community Center — with staff crammed into small rooms and items for the hundreds of needy families they serve piled up in every spare corner. And since the pandemic, it’s only gotten worse.
“We are literally bursting at the seams,” Executive Director Kari Cushing said. “We have three people in an office so it doesn’t allow for confidentiality. And this time of year, we have to turn donations away because we don’t have a place to put anything.”
She said the staff, which provides food, clothing, furniture, school supplies, afterschool programs, and for a few, housing, was using the lunchroom for private conversations with families and a public bathroom to store diapers, shampoo and other personal hygiene products. Cushing said, the center staff and board knew they had to expand — but where?
Cushing wanted to stay in the Franklin Street neighborhood where the center also manages a food pantry, a free store and an affordable apartment building. But there was no space available nearby. Thus, they set about raising $2.5 million to build an addition to the house the organization has rented for $1 a year from the city for 37 years. As they were raising money, Cushing said, she saw a sign across the street. The MASIE Center was for sale.
“It seemed far-fetched,” Cushing said. “But we have to look at it at the very least. We went over there and it was perfect. It was wide open downstairs. It’s an enormous room, with no load bearing walls. But we didn’t have the money.”
She went to her board to discuss it and, at that meeting, member Stacie Arpey, a retired school psychologist, upped her pledge from $100,000 for the
addition to $1 million for the MASIE Center purchase.
“There were tears and everybody was speechless,” Cushing said.
But that’s not all. Elliott and Cathy Masie then dropped the asking price on the MASIE Center building, erected in 2000, from $2.6 million to $2.1 million, allowing the community center to seal the deal. The Franklin center closes on the MASIE Center building purchase on Thursday.
“It’s a no brainer,” Cushing said. “But it ups our budget a little bit because of moving and additional operating expenses. We have to do a little renovation over there. But it allows us the space needed in the vicinity of all of our other buildings.”
Elliott Masie called it a win for his business, the nonprofit and community.
“We had a choice, make it into four condos or sell it to the Franklin Center,” said Masie who is also a Broadway show producer. “Cathy and I looked at each other and the Franklin Community Center was it. We said ‘let’s make it happen.’ We couldn’t imagine a better use.”
In addition to dropping the price, Cushing said the Masies are leaving all the furniture and the technology in the building that housed their learning consortium. The pandemic demonstrated to the Masies that all of their employees could work from home, proving a physical office space was not necessary for their company which specializes in digital learning and development seminars and conferences.
For her part, Arpey said she and her husband, Michael, who works at Hunter Capital in New York City, are “thrilled” to donate funding to the community center which typically serves 6,000 annually in Saratoga Springs and even more during the pandemic.
“This new home for FCC will help ensure that families in Saratoga Springs having an inviting place to receive the resources of FCC for years to come.” Arpey said. Cushing said she is currently uncertain how staff and services will be reconfigured into the new building. However, the food pantry will remain in the 100year-old house at 10 Franklin St. She also said the center still needs to raise a little less than $1 million in order to have money to maintain another facility, which she estimates will cost another $25,000 a year. She is, however, optimistic about 2021.
“First and foremost, the new building will allow the confidentiality to all the people we serve,” Cushing said of the new space. “It will improve efficiency. … It will allow us to store items. It will allow us to expand and grow our programs as the needs of the community shift and change. ... It’s just so heartwarming to see how many people have come together for this project.”