The Salvation Army Eastside Corps has raised $3.2 million — with a $5.5 million capital campaign goal — to construct a two-story, 17,280-square-foot community center in Bellevue’s Crossroads neighborhood. Corps Lt. Darryck Dwelle says the center will be the tool that allows the nonprofit to expand its social service and after-school programs that have long suffered capacity issues in its current facility.

“The building is just a resource in which we can meet a growing need in this Crossroads area,” Dwelle said. 

The community center will replace a 5,200-square-foot office building constructed by the Salvation Army on the 900 block of 164th Avenue Northeast. the nonprofit had planned to be temporary, but has been operating for the past 10 years, serving communities in Bellevue, Kirkland, Redmond, Bothell and Woodinville.

“We call it our one-room schoolhouse,” Dwelle said of the modular building.

The Salvation Army Eastside provides a number of social service programs primarily meant to assist the working poor, including emergency assistance with covering utility costs, clothing for children and adults who need them for employment, furniture vouchers, housing assistance and meal programs.

“Mostly we’re preventing people from entering homelessness,” Dwelle said. “We do a lot for the working poor in this area.”

There is also an after-school program at the current facility and a growing wait list to get in. The computer lab is a small room with six working computers that more than 30 children in the program must take turns using. A kitchen where food is made to serve as many as 80 people coming by for a free meal is a little bigger than that. A number of other programs spill over into the worship room, but space is tight everywhere, Dwelle said.

The new community center design submitted to the city of Bellevue reflects the Salvation Army’s philosophical aspirations — a gym represents the body while classrooms on the southside of the building represents the mind and the chapel symbolizes the spirit.

Dwelle said the new center will double space for dry storage like clothes and food bags and includes an industrial kitchen and larger space for the nonprofit’s meal program.

“The second floor is designed completely for kids,” he said, and includes classrooms, activity rooms and computer lab.

Dwelle said once the community center is completed, the Salvation Army hopes to expand its number of community partnerships to add services and programs, with plans already set to open the gym up as a women and children’s shelter during the winter.

The hope is to break ground on the new community center, which will take over the current facility’s footprint and an adjacent lot, in the final quarter of 2015. That will be contingent on the Salvation Army reaching its fundraising goal and being issued its building permits, Dwelle said.

To learn more about the project, Dwelle can be reached at 425-802-9429 or

darryck.dwelle@usw.salvationarmy.org.