Agency takes over vacant building — Retardation Council enjoys new home
By Sheryl Edelen
July 2, 2008 | Louisville Courier-Journal
A long-vacant Old Louisville building is now home to the Council on Mental Retardation.
The nonprofit group moved into the 10,000-square-foot building at 1151 S. Fourth St. on June 2.
The structure, built in 1968 as a car-leasing firm, will allow the council to hold larger gatherings for clients and their families, including children and adults with "autism, Down syndrome, spina bifida, cerebral palsy and epilepsy.
"This has been such a great dream for us,· said April DuVal, the council's executive director.
The building, just north of the Fourth and Oak Street intersection, is fully accessible to the disabled, unlike the council's previous headquarters building on Third Street. That building, which had 5,000 square feet, is directly behind the council's new home.
The new building also will feature ample storage, classroom and office space, and a first-floor art gallery.
The price tag for the project. which included the cost of the building and renovations. was about $775,000, much of which came from private donations, the city and the Brown-Forman Foundation.
DuVal said the idea of relocating arose in 2005 when it was decided the organization needed more space to canry on its mission.
Fate then intervened, she said. A chance discussion she had with the Fourth Street building's former owner, Don Ford, revealed that the IRS had placed a $15,000 lien on the property.
When it went on the auction block several months later, the council purchased it for $68,000.
It then mounted a capital campaign in 2006 to raise funds for repairs.
And the Weber Group, a local construction firm with ties to the special-needs community agreed to do the renovation at cost and convinced several subcontractors to do the same.
"It was a wonderful solution.... We were able to afford what we wanted" for the building, DuVal said.
Reporter Sheryi Edelen can be reached at (502) 582-4621.