IRVINE : Multiservice Center Complete and Full

The Irvine Multiservice Center’s expansion and renovation program is now complete, creating office space for 24 nonprofit organizations in the former City Hall building.

Although minor work still needs to be completed in the area that used to house the police department, the old City Hall at Jamboree Road and McGaw Avenue is once again full and providing services to the community, said Libby Cowan, the city’s Community Services superintendent.

Organizations leasing space in the center include Irvine Temporary Housing, the Irvine Chamber of Commerce, the For Families program that offers help and counseling to families in a crisis, the Short Stature Foundation and the Kid Phone program that allows children home alone after school to call for help with homework or to find a friendly voice.

When city officials vacated City Hall in April, 1989, they chose to make the space available to nonprofit groups rather than sell the building. Half of the building, about 20,000 square feet, was available that fall.

But the police station area needed more work, which began last June.

“We had to tear out old carpeting, repair walls, electrical fixtures, everything to get (the building) to the point of renting out space,” Cowan said. The additional 20,000 square feet is now complete, she said.

Irvine leases the office space only to nonprofit organizations and charges rent based on their ability to pay, Cowan said. All organizations, though, must pay a flat janitorial and administrative fee.

About 10 tenants pay the full rate, which is still less than what a commercial office would cost in Irvine, Cowan said. Most of the organizations in the Multiservice Center probably could not afford to lease office space elsewhere in the city, she said.