Evelyn K. Davis Center to relocate, expand in downtown Des Moines; C Fresh Market to grow

A touted downtown Des Moines organization dedicated to improving the lives of low-income and blue-collar families in central Iowa will be moving. 

Leaders at the Evelyn K. Davis Center for Working Families plan to expand its space and services. To do so, the center will move from its current location at 801 University Ave. to 1171 Seventh St., next to the Des Moines Area Community College's Urban Campus. The move was approved at a trustees meeting Monday, according to a news release from the college.

The school plans for the move to happen during spring break.

“We’ve had great success serving Central Iowa’s unemployed and underemployed populations since we opened our doors in 2012,” Marvin DeJear, director of the Evelyn K. Davis Center, said in the release. “This expansion gives us the capacity to serve more people and further meet the needs of the community. Building onto our existing space would cost millions of dollars more than our move into the Anawim building across the street."

Also approved at the meeting was the $700,000 sale of that current space on University to the center's neighbor, C Fresh Market. 

C Fresh Market will now undergo needed growth and remodeling, DeJear said. 

The board approved the purchase of the Anawim building, the Seventh Street property, for $1.5 million too. That space will nearly double the Evelyn K. Davis Center's size at 23,000-square-feet. The extra room allows expansion of job-coaching, workforce-training and English-as-a-second-language classes, among others.

MORE: Teens gain skills at Evelyn K. Davis program

“With the new location and expansion, the Evelyn K. Davis Center and the DMACC Urban Campus will together serve an even greater role helping and preparing these underserved populations for employment and success,” said Anne Howsare-Boyens, provost of the DMACC Urban Campus. “We’re creating a great campus environment to serve more people.”

Eighteen staff members work under DeJear at the center, which has served more than 28,000 people. The college said the EKD center helped more than 10,000 central Iowans last year alone. 

Along with the center's move, DMACC's Urban Campus is planned to receive a new $24 million student center and academic complex, an expansion of the Ford ASSET Auto Technician Program and a youth emergency services and shelter residential facility for young people who have aged out of foster care. 

Follow the Register on Facebook and Twitter for more news. Tyler Davis can be contacted at tjdavis@registermedia or on Twitter @TDavisDMR.

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