Thousands of children, teenagers and residents of all ages can now enjoy the new Bellevue Boys and Girls Club facility in Downtown, which opened Oct. 6.

The 27,000-square-foot facility is the organization’s new main building. It has been under construction since October 2015.

The formerly boys-focused club opened its doors in 1952 and became the first club in the nation to open their doors to girls in the mid-1970s. The original clubhouse underwent renovations around the same time.

Currently, the dozen Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellevue provide over one million hours of out-of-school programs annually for 14,000 youths. The increased service and population growth in Downtown Bellevue strained the original building, and the organization ultimately decided to replace it in January 2012.

“It will allow us to improve the quality of existing programs and enable the Club to keep pace with the growing population and needs of downtown Bellevue by serving nearly double the kids we currently serve in the old downtown Club,” said Kathy Haggart, the organization’s president and CEO.

The construction of the new downtown clubhouse, a teen center in Lake Hills and a new field house in Hidden Valley cost $23.5 million. Around $11 million of that money was to go towards the downtown clubhouse. The City of Bellevue contributed $1.5 million for the downtown location and gave funding and assisted with construction on the Hidden Valley and the East Bellevue locations.

The new 27,000-square-foot clubhouse features a gym, tech lab, teaching kitchen, games room, tween/teen space, community room, education center and a preschool. It will also be used as a multi-generational community center when not being used for youth programming.

Bellevue does not currently have a community center downtown, and Mayor John Stokes said that the the clubhouse on 110th Avenue Northeast and its proximity to Downtown Park and the Inspiration Playground and sensory garden under construction makes it an ideal spot.

“Out goal is to have the lights on nearly 24/7. We want this facility to be used by the community,” Haggart said.