The Boys & Girls Clubs of Weld County has plans for an approximately $6.5 million renovation of a 101-year-old historic and beloved Greeley building.

The nonprofit purchased the former Warnoco Roller Skating Rink on 2nd Street in late 2022 with the goal to turn the curved-roof structure into a teen center for high school students.

The Boys & Girls Clubs of Weld County operates facilities in four communities: Greeley, Milliken, Galeton and Fort Lupton. The organization’s current teen center is located at its Pawl Clubhouse on 1st Avenue in Greeley. Boys & Girls Clubs of Weld County CEO Terry Adams said the center serves about 30 kids a day in 2,500 square feet.

The Warnoco building, at 1407 2nd St., is six times larger at 15,000 square feet and will be able to accommodate more than 100 students daily.

“I want this to be the primary life and workforce readiness option for teens in the area,” Adams said. “To get them ready for what’s next — vocational, community college, four-year school. Whatever that is. Our job is to get them ready for that.”

The goal is to open the new center in late spring 2024, Adams said.

The Boys & Girls Clubs is hosting a public campaign kickoff press conference at 11 a.m. April 3 at the old skating rink.

The Boys & Girls Clubs bought the building, which was built in 1922, for $1.15 million in late October from Jim Emmett, according to the county property assessor website.

Public skating ended at the rink in the late 1990s, and the long-time owner, the Norcross family, sold Warnoco North to the Greeley Urban Renewal Authority in 2002. Emmett bought the building in 2011.

Adams said re-roofing work will begin next month with full construction starting in June. The organization has “quietly” been fundraising and collected about $3.35 million over the last eight months, Adams said.

VFLA Architecture in Fort Collins is handling the design of the project.

The entrance to the teen center will be on the west side of the building — accessible from the parking lot, according to architect renderings. Another smaller building might serve as office space also on the west side of the property, Adams said.

On the east side of the building will be an outdoor patio and soccer field. An outdoor basketball court will be built on the north side.

Inside will be four programming spaces or classrooms — work areas on the sides of the rink. A teaching kitchen with a garage door will provide access to the patio on the east side.

In the middle of the rink will be a game area, and the Boys & Girls Clubs plans to keep the original wood flooring in that space.

“It feels like a student union,” Adams said, looking at the open-space design.

The Boys & Girls Clubs will have students waiting to get into the teen center before the renovated building opens. Last fall, Adams contacted Jefferson High School principal Larry Green about the clubs’ plans and offered students the use of the teen center facilities.

The new Jefferson High School will open on the other side of 2nd Street, at the intersection with 14th Avenue, later this year with Greeley-Evans School District’s new Career and Technical Education Center.

Green said the District 6 students will likely use the teen center’s kitchen for culinary lessons, as well as the soccer field and outdoor courts for team sports and physical education.

“He reached out and was just as nice as he could be to open the facility,” Green said. “We had an extensive meeting over there, and we’re super, super excited. They’re going to have a lot of after-school activities.”

Adams said the Boys & Girls Clubs have been talking about a new teen center for about three years. The organization considered a new building in the vicinity of Island Grove Regional Park. Other areas were also considered, and the idea of the old skating rink came along about 14 months ago.

Adams consulted with VFLA and the project moved along.

The teen center’s model will be for after-school programming and full days during the summer.

“Every day they come in, we want them to be learning something they’re not going to get anywhere else,” said Ava Gish, Boys & Girls Clubs of Weld County director of teen services.

Gish said these lessons could include information on cooking and banking, such as how to balance a checkbook. The center will also have workshops with speakers and experts to work with and talk with the students.

“In Boys & Girls Clubs nationwide, teen programming was set back (with the COVID-19) pandemic,” Adams said. “Teens learned to be independent. We’re in the process of rebuilding and pulling them together.”

Adams also said he recently saw a report from the Centers of Disease Control and Prevention indicating increases in sadness and exposure to violence among teen girls and LGBTQ+ youth.

The CDC report, updated March 9, showed 57% of female U.S. high school students reported feelings of helplessness in 2021 compared to 29% of their male peers. CDC data also showed 30% of female high school students in the U.S. seriously considered attempting suicide in 2021. The report said 14% of male students seriously considered taking their own lives.

“It’s the demographic like this that needs programming,” Adams said.