The Arcus Foundation Announces Plans To Transfer Historic Depot to Kalamazoo Community Foundation
July 24, 2013
July 24, 2013 – The Arcus Foundation, a leading global foundation advancing pressing social justice and conservation issues, announced today plans to gift its Kalamazoo, MI office building, known as the Arcus Depot, to the Kalamazoo Community Foundation (KCF).
Arcus will transfer the building and make a one-time grant of $1M to KCF to support transition and renovation costs. The foundations expect that the transfer will be complete in mid-September. KCF plans to occupy the facility in the second half of 2014.
Jon Stryker, Arcus’ founder and President, purchased the Depot, built in 1874 as a railroad passenger and warehouse depot, in 2003. Stryker, a Kalamazoo native who trained as an architect, commissioned Cambridge Seven of Cambridge, Massachusetts to redevelop the 10,000 sq. ft. building into office space for Arcus and other local non-profit organizations. The renovations earned a Historic Preservation Merit Award from Kalamazoo’s Historic Preservation Commission. The Depot is currently listed on the Michigan Register of Historic Places. Arcus’ space needs in Kalamazoo have evolved over the past several years, and the Foundation determined that it would no longer occupy the Depot.
“We wanted to ensure that the Depot would continue to serve the Kalamazoo community and that its architectural integrity would be maintained,” said Kevin Jennings, Arcus’ Executive Director. “The Kalamazoo Community Foundation emerged as the ideal steward of this community resource and the architectural legacy that the Depot represents, and we are delighted to give this important asset to KCF.”
“The value that having a permanent location will bring to our work is, in itself, tremendous. Making our home in the iconic Depot, a visible and accessible symbol of Kalamazoo’s history and promise, will deepen our connection to grantees, donors and community groups,” said Carrie Pickett Erway, KCF’s president and CEO. “We could not be more grateful to Jon Stryker and the Arcus Foundation for their longstanding record of generosity to the Kalamazoo Community which will now include this extraordinary gift to our Foundation.”
About the Arcus Foundation
The Arcus Foundation is a private grantmaking foundation that supports organizations around the world working to advance equality across the spectrum of sexual orientations and gender identities (SOGI) as well as conservation of the world’s great apes. Founded in 2000 by Jon Stryker, the mission of the Arcus Foundation is to achieve social justice that is inclusive of sexual orientation, gender identity and race, and to ensure conservation and respect of the great apes. The Foundation works globally and has offices in New York City, Kalamazoo, MI and Cambridge, UK.
About the Kalamazoo Community Foundation
Founded in 1925, the Kalamazoo Community Foundation makes life better for all through leadership and stewardship of resources that last forever. The Community Foundation works strategically to address existing and emerging community needs in the areas of Early Childhood Learning and School Readiness, Economic and Community Development, Individuals and Families, and Youth Development. www.kalfound.org.
