Bonnell Building Project buys former St. Mary church property

A variety of businesses and initiatives have been launched from the Bonnell Building Project Inc.?s space at the corner of Burlington Avenue and Main Street.

Now, the non-profit organization is prepared to expand beyond the walls of its location on the Fairfield square. The Bonnell Building Project closed on the Third Street St. Mary Catholic Church property Oct. 4, acquiring a five-bedroom home, 15,000-square foot schoolhouse, 1,500-square foot workshop and 1.7 acres of land.

?St. Mary?s is very much just an expansion of our space,? said Roland Wells, who forms the Bonnell board of directors with Steve Cooperman and Sundar Raman. ?Our purpose is to basically provide space and support for people to pursue their passions and build businesses and community organizations.?

The non-profit ? which focuses on the 30-and-under crowd, but aims to serve the whole community ? currently occupies about 70 percent of the 12,000-square foot Bonnell building. Its initiatives include a performance venue, gallery space, café and recording studio ? all of which came about because of young people coming forward with ideas.

?If it fits our mission, we?ll support them,? Cooperman said. The organization?s support extends beyond space to advice and assistance fundraising and organizing.

Three years into its existence though, the Bonnell Building Project was running out of room to accommodate everyone.

?We had people coming to us with these requests that we couldn?t fill because we were out of space,? Cooperman said. ?One of the big requests was for artist studio space. The other thing that was coming up a lot was requests for a commercial kitchen. And there were a lot of people interested in sustainable agriculture.?

?The St. Mary?s property is ideal for a number of those things that we weren?t able to do in this building,? Wells said.

The Rev. Stephen Page said St. Mary Catholic Church is fortunate to be situated in a community with so many innovative individuals.

?It?s easy to sell land. It?s easy to sell a house. A school building presents a challenge,? he said.

Page knows of a number of other churches in this diocese with former rectories or schools on the market ? Fairfield was lucky to have several parties interested in the St. Mary property, he said.

All activities housed in the former schoolhouse moved to the new church upon its completion. Page moved out of the rectory in August ? to Suburban Heights ? in anticipation of its sale.

At this point, nothing about the property?s use into the future has been set in stone.

Cooperman does, however, expect the commercial kitchen will be one of the first rooms put to use ? quite possibly as an incubator for food businesses, giving aspiring entrepreneurs an opportunity to test the water without a huge investment up front.

Wells thinks studio space will quickly follow, and a rooftop garden project started at the Bonnell building will likely expand on Third Street.

As with the organization?s other initiatives, the goal at the new location will be to kick start new projects with volunteer enthusiasm and little overhead. The Beauty Shop, for example, was launched with a couple hundred dollars and has since hosted more than 150 music shows.

Cooperman and Wells hope to see an extension of that success in the new space and are open to ideas.