Nonprofit purchases property from Halle’s foundation
The Nonprofit Development Corporation has purchased the building once owned by the Grace Youth and Family Foundation, a nonprofit once operated by former Butler school board member William “Bill” Halle.
The NDC closed on the building in October through bankruptcy court. It sold for $375,000.
According to NDC executive director Christopher Lunn, the nonprofit is acting as a middleman on behalf of Butler County Human Services, which plans to utilize the space as a drug and alcohol recovery center.
Lunn said this is not the first time the NDC and the Human Services department have collaborated.
“We’ve done some collaboration on some other properties with Butler County Human Services, and this is just one of them,” Lunn said. “We'll act as the landlord for a provider that they're going to have a program in there for.”
Brandon Savochka, director of Butler County Human Services, said the department has been looking “the past few years” for the right place for a new recovery center.
“It's been an ongoing exploration of properties,” Savochka said. “When this one became available, it was just the right property at the right time, I guess. We looked for a lot of other ones, but this one fits all the needs that we have.”
As a recovery center, the space will house programs designed for people who have completed treatment for drug, alcohol and other substance abuse problems and are rebuilding their lives.
“They’re coming here to do activities together, socialize, maybe do some ongoing education and job programs,” Savochka said.
Savochka said the building will require only minor renovation.
“The building already pretty much fits the purpose,” Savochka said. “We’ll probably replace the roof, but other than that, we’re good to go.”
The Nonprofit Development Corporation — which shares offices, staff and a phone number with the Alliance for Nonprofit Resources — has many holdings in Butler County. These include several residential buildings, as well as the Donut Connection restaurant on Center Avenue and the Center for Community Resources office building on Main Street.
The NDC purchased the Donut Connection from its original owners for $140,000 and reopened it in April 2021. They use the shop to run a “supportive employment” program.
“Our mission is putting property into service,” Lunn said.
Donna Jenereski, director of Butler County’s drug and alcohol programs, estimates the Grace Foundation building could be put back into use by April or May.
According to Butler County property records, the Nonprofit Development Corporation owns 17 properties in the county, not counting the Grace Foundation building. The vast majority of these properties are residential in nature, and their purchase prices ranged from $6,000 to $450,000 — the latter price paid for the Center for Community Resources office.
This does not include properties the NDC acquired but later divested. One such property is the site of the former Bruin Elementary School in the northern part of the county, which the NDC acquired for $1 in 2018, and sold in February 2023 for $50,000.
