NAMI buys former Victim Center building

The former longtime home of The Victim Center Inc. will soon house another nonprofit.

The local chapter of the National Alliance on Mental Illness is the new owner of the building at 819 Boonville Ave. Stephanie Appleby, executive director of NAMI Southwest Missouri Inc., said the agency closed July 26 on the $515,000 purchase from The Victim Center. She said Aurora-based Hartrup Contracting is helping NAMI renovate the building, estimating the cost at roughly $25,000. Infill work includes removal and installation of walls, painting and carpet replacement, she said.

“We are so lucky. It was such a blessing how it worked out,” Appleby said, noting an undisclosed donor provided NAMI with $100,000 to apply to the real estate purchase. “Without that, we would have never been able to do this.”

NAMI plans to move by late September to the 5,740-square-foot building, which was built in 1906, she said. The Victim Center occupied the Boonville Avenue building since 1976 before moving in June to its new headquarters at 815 W. Tampa St., said Executive Director Brandi Bartel. The Victim Center bought the Tampa property for $675,000 last year from Volt Credit Union, which moved its branch to North Kansas Expressway, according to past Springfield Business Journal reporting.

Appleby said she connected earlier this year with Bartel shortly after learning the building was up for sale.

“I went over and fell in love with it. It just seemed like a perfect fit,” she said.

Since 2014, NAMI has operated at 1443 N. Robberson Ave, in the CoxHealth Medical Tower. A move to larger space from the nonprofit’s 3,183 square feet had been a long-term goal, Appleby said. The agency currently staffs three but is in the process of adding a fourth employee, she said.

“About three years ago, we knew we would need to move,” Appleby said. “Everything we looked at was so much infill and so much money.”

Appleby said depending the renovation timeline, there may be a temporary period when the nonprofit’s office will be closed prior to the move. However, she said its support groups will continue, along with access to the Warmline, a free phone service through which people with mental health issues can talk about their experiences.