IRVINE : Tenants Want City to Keep Center Open

The two dozen nonprofit agencies that work out of the Multiservice Center fear that the city might close down the facility because it loses money, and scatter its tenants to other municipal buildings.

The groups--which provide such services as drug prevention classes, child care and family counseling--are fighting to keep the Jamboree Road center open. They argue that the city is best served by clustering its major charities in one location.

“This building offers an amazing blend of services,” said Margie Wakeham, who heads Irvine Temporary Housing, one of the tenants at the center. “There is a certain synergy that comes when you have all these services available at one location. It benefits the people of Irvine.”

Wakeham and other tenants praised the city for the generous deals the agencies currently receive. The groups pay rents far below market rates to operate out of a centrally located building with plenty of parking.

But some city Finance Commission officials question whether the city is being too generous. The city loses about $65,000 a year operating the center, which needs earthquake retrofitting and $400,000 worth of repairs to the air-conditioning system.

The City Council was scheduled to decide the matter Tuesday. But after hearing the concerns of the tenants, the council put off a vote for two weeks.

In the meantime, it asked city officials to provide more detailed plans on where the agencies would be placed if they vacated the Multiservice Center. Council members also requested that the building’s value be appraised.

Some finance commissioners have suggested moving the nonprofit groups to vacant offices at City Hall and the city’s maintenance yard to save money.

But not enough city office space is available to house all the groups, so it is likely that some nonprofit agencies will be forced to rent private quarters, City Manager Paul O. Brady Jr. said.

Wakeham and others said the city has created a unique environment at the Multiservice Center that allows clients from one nonprofit group to learn about services available at other agencies in the building.

“The city could be almost avant-garde in coordinating services that most people consider to be cost-effective and beneficial to the people we serve,” Wakeham said. Keeping the center intact would “mean a lot to the families we serve. You can’t put a dollar figure on that.”