LORAIN — More than a year of looking for a way to keep St. Joseph Community Center open ended unsuccessfully Wednesday and may leave the city and the county holding the bag on more than $1 million in loans on a vacant building.

Lorain County Commissioner Ted Kalo, Lorain Service Director Robert Gilchrist and Community Development Director Sandy Prudoff have spent the better part of the past year trying to find a way to fill the square-footage necessary to keep the center operating in the black.

The transition team formed by Mayor Tony Krasienko and headed by Gilchrist came up with a plan that included moving Lorain County Health & Dentistry from its current location adjacent to St. Joe’s into the center, where Lorain County Community College’s satellite branch is currently located. LCCC was willing to move to the center’s second floor and verbally agreed to take on more than 5,000 additional square feet of space in addition to the 19,052 square feet it already rents.

Health & Dentistry CEO Stephanie Wiersma confirmed Wednesday that Health & Dentistry’s lease with Community Health Partners ends in May 2010, and that she’s been notified that the lease payment will be increased. The plan put together by the transition team would have cost Health & Dentistry less money per month than it currently pays. The city also was offering them a grant of up to $200,000 to outfit space inside St. Joe’s to meet their needs.

However, Wiersma said she’s made it clear for the past two years that Health and Dentistry isn’t interested in moving into the community center because the group is not interested in renting any longer.

“We’ve consistently told South Shore and city officials, I think beginning in May of 2007 when we were first asked to move there, that we were not interested and that it did not meet our needs,” Wiersma said. “It’s unfortunate the city has a plan that hinges on us moving there because we couldn’t have been clearer about our organization’s objectives and that they don’t dovetail with the city’s … The model for the most successful health centers around the country is that they own their own facility. We were open to hearing the proposal, but the fact remains that it doesn’t jibe with our objective to own a building.”

Wiersma said Health & Dentistry already owns a site in South Lorain and wants to buy a site in Central Lorain.
“We want to own our own building, and we want to continue to provide high-quality primary care and do it in the community where our target population resides,” she said.

Gilchrist said he had no idea Health & Dentistry was looking to buy a building and said he now feels like months of work was wasted due to the lack of communication between the city and Wiersma.

“She could have made it clear in our first conversation,” Gilchrist said. “She should have told us two years ago.”

Kalo said the result of Health & Dentistry declining the city’s offer makes the chances of keeping the community center open slim.

“It puts the future of St. Joe’s in jeopardy,” Kalo said. “One of our main focuses during the past year was keeping that place viable and keeping the services available. The other (tenants) have no choice but to find locations elsewhere.”

South Shore Community Development Corp. an-nounced in early April that the center will close at the end of the year after nearly 10 years at its West 20th Street location. One of the main contributors to the center’s financial struggles is the high utility bills for the 300,000-square-foot building.

Only 68,000 square feet of space is rented, and South Shore has said it needs to rent an additional 70,000 just to break even. About 200,000 square feet is “rentable” space.

The state has $1.4 million in loans invested in the community center, while the county and the city each have $750,000 in loans tied to the center. If South Shore files for bankruptcy, the state, county and city will be on the hook for those loans to the tune of $80,000 a year for 10 to 12 years.

In addition to the offer to Health & Dentistry, the transition team had located grant money to redo the HVAC system and cut utility costs by 30 percent. All existing tenants had also verbally agreed to a lease payment increase in order to keep the center open.

“Everybody was willing to step on board,” Gilchrist said of the plan.

Krasienko was also disappointed by Wednesday’s news.

“We have put a phenomenal effort into adding sustainability and viability to St. Joe’s Community Center,” he said. “My staff and department heads have done a tremendous job of putting together a viable option to keep it open. I’m disappointed they’re not going to have a chance to prove themselves.”

Current tenants include offices for U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown, D-Avon, and U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, D-Copley Township, the Lorain Police Department Community Resource Office, the Neighborhood House Association, a satellite branch of Lorain County Community College, the Louis Stokes Cleveland VA Medical Center Outpatient Clinic, the county’s auto title and passport office and the Lorain County Alcohol and Drug Abuse Services.

The loss of Health & Dentistry as a potential tenant makes the chances of keeping the center open grim, Gilchrist said.

“Without Health & Dentistry, or a company or agency like them, I don’t see how St. Joe’s Community Center can sustain itself the way it exists today,” Gilchrist said.

If nothing else, Gilchrist said current efforts will focus on keeping the VA offices right where they are.

“We will work diligently with the VA to segregate the utilities so they, at least, can stay in their current location,” he said, adding he’s confident he can find locations for the other 11 tenants within the city limits, keeping jobs and income taxes in Lorain.

Contact Alicia Castelli at 329-7144 or acastelli@chroniclet.com.

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