New Paradise Community Center in the works
After being in the works for some time, the board overseeing the rebuilding of the new Paradise Community Center has announced that contracts for the project are now in place.
The original community center was lost in the Camp Fire and back in 2021, plans were announced to rebuild. Now, the board has partnered with Chico company North Valley Building Systems. Troy Ferguson, locally known for building the Elks and Eagles lodges will be the center’s builder while Gregory Peitz, known for the Performing Arts building, will be the architect.
Initial plans say that the building will come out to just north of 9,000 square feet.
“We not only lost our building with all of its contents, equipment and records — we lost our Thrift
Store which provided muchneeded funding — we lost our membership of over 300 which was another source of income,” a statement issued by the board reads. “We were insured; however, monies were not enough to rebuild at today’s prices. We do have a deadline from our insurance company to receive building code upgrade monies of up to $470,000 if we complete the building by May 11, 2025.”
According to the statement, the new community
center will include a large room with a performance stage, meeting rooms, a commercial kitchen and a lobby. The large room will be able to be divided as needed for various events down the line. Additionally, small rooms can be rented out by community members and groups.
“We joined the PG& E lawsuit which has paid a portion of the claim and we are hopefully waiting for more,” the statement reads. “We have approximately three million dollars, which allows us to rebuild. The rebuild is exactly where we were before 877 Nunneley Road. We are very lucky to have a great location with a large parking lot and wonderful neighbors like Performing Arts.”
Other funding has been raised by the North Valley Community Foundation that will go toward the rebuild.
“Our board has been consistent in wanting to rebuild and began exploring how we could accomplish this recognizing we were not going to be able to do this on our own,” according to the statement. “We have worked closely with Paradise Parks and Recreation. We also received a grant from North Valley Foundation. We are hopeful an additional grant will come from the Paradise Rotary in the future.”
More information will be reported on this project as it is released.