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The Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, a regional nonprofit that provides water, wastewater, lending, and housing services, has opened a new office in downtown Roanoke. Here is a press release from SERCAP:

On May 9, 2011 Hope F. Cupit, President & CEO and the staff of Southeast Rural Community Assistance Project, Inc. (SERCAP) officially opened their newly renovated office building at 347 Campbell Ave., SW, Roanoke, VA across from the Roanoke City Police Department.  The new building was completed after a five year process of planning and renovation. The public is cordially invited to an open house celebration on Wednesday, June 15, 2011 from 1:00pm to 4:00pm.

SERCAP, a regional nonprofit which provides water, wastewater, lending, and housing services, purchased the former Harris Furniture and Fulton Motors building, under the vision of past CEO, Mary C. Terry.  The building had fallen into severe disrepair and was in desperate need of improvement.  SERCAP took on the challenge of rescuing this building located in the historic section of downtown Roanoke and continued to push for renovation even following Terry’s retirement. “SERCAP has been struggling for more than five years to put together a deal to centrally consolidate it’s corporate administrative operations with it’s Virginia project staff in a facility that would promote efficiency with long term cost savings. This building provides an excellent showcase for what happens when a deserving agency teams up with corporate partners for the good of the community as a whole,” said Cupit.

The building was rehabilitated by Blake Construction in Roanoke, Virginia in cooperation with financing through Community Capital Bank in Christiansburg, Virginia.  Shaun Rai of Virginia Community Capitol said, “Our relationship with Southeast RCAP goes back several years, and we have a very good understanding of the organization’s mission, management and finances. This allowed us to provide the type of financing needed to move the project forward, within a lending environment that was rapidly contracting at the time.  This project has gone very smoothly; SERCAP, Blake (the builder) and SKANSKA (the project management company) all worked extremely hard as a team to keep the project on track and bring it to a successful close.”

“This project was a success due to the team’s on-going approach of working together to meet all goals and exceed expectations.  It was a great experience,” said Curtis Elswick of Skanska USA Building who managed the project for SERCAP.

Over the past few year’s businesses, developers, and the City of Roanoke have been consistently working to restore many of the old buildings in the downtown area and SERCAP is pleased to be a part of the downtown revitalization movement which has been occurring across the Commonwealth.