Health Center Could Be Ward 8 Anchor
Kelly Sweeney McShane of nonprofit Community of Hope knew getting a slice of the $1B that Carlyle co-founder Bill Conway wanted to pump into the DC region would be a long shot. But she wrote an email and was rewarded last week with the biggest gift ever in the nonprofit's history:$1.75M from Bill and his wife Joanne's charitable trust, the Bedford Falls Foundation. (A Nigerian prince sent usan email promising that amount, so we're feeling pretty good about our chances.)A large portion of it will be used for the nonprofit's new health center going up in Ward 8. Kelly tells us the steel beams are up and the project is on pace to finish by the end of the year.
The $26.5M Conway Health and Resource Center will sit on what was once an empty parking lot on Atlantic St SW. Kelly says the challenge was finding a good location that's commercially zoned. Turns out the block has had some development activity with Bellevue Library completed last summer and a proposed residential and retail project potentially going across the street. She hopes the health center will be an anchor for more development.
