Kroc Center starts to take shape with addition of 60-foot tower
Slowly but surely, the Quincy Salvation Army Ray and Joan Kroc Corps Community Center is coming to life.
Workers this morning installed a 60-foot tower on the southwest corner of the worship center near Fifth and Vermont. A small crowd gathered as a massive Shortridge Construction crane and several workers guided the tower, which will hold a well-lit beacon, into place.
The $24.5 million, 90,000-square-foot facility will be home to a 500-seat worship center, community room, caf & eacute;, party rooms, fitness center, child watch area, outdoor play area, aquatics center, state-of-the-art game room, walking/running track, gym and climbing wall.
After several years of "value engineering" and planning, seeing the facility taking shape is having a profound effect on Salvation Army staff.
"Sometimes words can''t describe what you are feeling inside," an awestruck Maj. Alan Wurtz of the Salvation Army said, watching the tower being moved into place. "To finally see it come to life is an amazing thing."
The Kroc Center is being built on a 3.5-acre site bordered by Fourth and Fifth streets, and Broadway and Vermont. Construction started in November and is expected to take about 18 months.
The crane lifted the 11-ton tower and slowly moved it into place, guided by helmet-clad workers.
The project is on time and on budget, Wurtz said. The Quincy Salvation Army learned in November 2006 that it was chosen as a site for a Kroc Center, made possible through a generous bequest left by Joan Kroc, widow of McDonald''s founder Ray Kroc, to the Salvation Army.
The beacon will be part of the worship center, and a second-floor sitting area will allow people to have a great view of the city and the Mississippi River.
"It will be a little quieter and away from our recreation area," said Paul Luhn, outreach ministries director for the Salvation Army. "It will be a good place to kind of get away and maybe have quieter fellowship."
Wurtz says plans continue for the Salvation Army and Quincy Medical Group Healthcare Foundation to bring emergency shelter and family services back to Broadway. The Salvation Army will refurbish the former Inman Gallery at 501 Broadway on the northeast corner of Fifth and Broadway, as well as add a big extension to house the shelter and the family services programs.
QMG Healthcare is helping to raise $2 million for the project. The original emergency shelter was demolished to make way for the Kroc Center.
