November 11, 2005
Groundbreaking Held For $23.5 Million Community Centerpiece
San Diego Monitor
Contact: Tracey Bryan at (619)660-5555
SAN DIEGO – More than 300 residents of Lincoln Park, Valencia Park, Chollas View, North and South Encanto, Emerald Hills, Mountain View, Mt. Hope, Oak Park, and Webster came together to break new ground on the $23.5 million Joe and Vi Jacobs Community Center at the hub of those underserved communities in southeastern San Diego.
Groundbreaking for what will become the centerpiece of Market Creek Plaza and a beautiful new community resource was held Friday, Nov. 4, at 11:30 a.m. at Market Creek Plaza, near the corner of Market Street and Euclid Avenue. In the spirit of partnership established with the community over the past seven years, the entire community was invited to attend.
A $15-million New Markets Tax Credit loan for construction and long term financing has been secured through Clearinghouse CDFI. With a low interest rate, the NMTC loan makes it possible to fund twice as much community development work with the same amount of cash flow and keep more money in the community.
The celebration included local residents and dignitaries, a traditional Samoan kava ceremony (reserved for high occasions and honored guests), multicultural food and entertainment, and placement of cultural and commemorative items in a time capsule for the building’s cornerstone. It was also the return of 90-year-old Vi Jacobs to the driver’s seat of heavy construction equipment, as she broke the ground driving a track hoe. Vi broke ground in a similar fashion at the 1998 groundbreaking for Market Creek Plaza.
The Joe and Vi Jacobs Community Center is planned as a 75,000-sq. ft., three-story building housing a cultural training kitchen, a state-of-the-art meeting and conference center, accessible community and office space, a showplace for public art, a neighborhood gathering place, and the headquarters for the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI).
The building site is located between Food 4 Less and Where the World Meets on the Market Creek Plaza site. Market Creek Plaza is the $23.5 million innovative commercial and cultural center planned, designed, built, leased, and now operated by teams of community residents. With creativity, respect for cultural diversity, and passion for their community, resident teams transformed the site of an old dilapidated aerospace factory into a vibrant community hub with 11 national and local businesses (some owned or managed by local residents) and more than 170 new jobs.
Residents are the stakeholders and shareholders in this large-scale, community economic development project designed as a catalyst for broad neighborhood transformation. The Plaza is funded by a unique public-private partnership that brought together public and private, non-profit and for-profit funding partners, including the largest New Markets Tax Credit loan in southern California. Planning for the Center began in 1999 as a partnership with resident teams and JCNI. As plans moved forward, resident teams suggested naming the new community center for Joe and Vi as a tribute to their commitment to the community, their spirit of entrepreneurship, and their love for arts culture and learning.
“We want to name the building for them so we will not forget them. We can’t forget them,” said Ardelle Matthews, long-time community resident and member of several Market Creek Plaza resident teams. “They’re the impetus for making Market Creek Plaza that bright spot on the corner of Market and Euclid. They asked us what we wanted, invited us to envision it, and challenged us to build it. They’ve made us know we are partners together. I’m so proud of what this community is becoming.”
Joe, Vi, and their three daughters (San Diego’s other philanthropic Jacobs family) are the founders of the JCNI and the Jacobs Family Foundation (JFF). Children of Lebanese immigrants, Joe and Vi started a small business that grew into the $5-billion worldwide engineering company, Jacobs Engineering Group. In 1988, Joe and Vi created the family foundation and asked their three daughters to join them. Over time, their work focused on neighborhood strengthening and led them to work with residents in developing Market Creek Plaza.
Joe Jacobs, who passed away last year at the age of 88, shared his passion for entrepreneurship and unwavering belief in community self-determination, resident ownership and asset development. The family is committed to pursuing a pioneering approach to private philanthropy, believing that granting money project-by-project and year-to-year rarely has a lasting impact. They are literally “betting the farm” that this approach will work, by investing in it the foundations’ assets.
“They believe that the key to making profound and enduring community change is by partnering with community stakeholders, encouraging residents to drive and own the change in their neighborhoods,” said Jennifer Vanica, president of both foundations. “The family’s style of philanthropy is based on deep-seated values and beliefs that respect people’s inherit dignity, independence, and ability to solve their own. Two of their daughters, Valerie and Meg, and their son-in-law, Norm, live in San Diego and help guide the foundations in their groundbreaking community development work.”
To date, the foundations have provided more than $41 million in technical assistance, training, and program support in San Diego. JFF’s $4.5 million investment in Market Creek Plaza leveraged another $19 million in resources for the community.
The Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation is a non-profit foundation that operates on the premise that residents must own and drive the change that takes place in their community for it to be meaningful and long-lasting. JCNI explores new pathways to change through entrepreneurial relationships, hands-on training, and the creative investment of resources.
Groundbreaking Held For $23.5 Million Community Centerpiece
San Diego Monitor
Contact: Tracey Bryan at (619)660-5555
SAN DIEGO – More than 300 residents of Lincoln Park, Valencia Park, Chollas View, North and South Encanto, Emerald Hills, Mountain View, Mt. Hope, Oak Park, and Webster came together to break new ground on the $23.5 million Joe and Vi Jacobs Community Center at the hub of those underserved communities in southeastern San Diego.
Groundbreaking for what will become the centerpiece of Market Creek Plaza and a beautiful new community resource was held Friday, Nov. 4, at 11:30 a.m. at Market Creek Plaza, near the corner of Market Street and Euclid Avenue. In the spirit of partnership established with the community over the past seven years, the entire community was invited to attend.
A $15-million New Markets Tax Credit loan for construction and long term financing has been secured through Clearinghouse CDFI. With a low interest rate, the NMTC loan makes it possible to fund twice as much community development work with the same amount of cash flow and keep more money in the community.
The celebration included local residents and dignitaries, a traditional Samoan kava ceremony (reserved for high occasions and honored guests), multicultural food and entertainment, and placement of cultural and commemorative items in a time capsule for the building’s cornerstone. It was also the return of 90-year-old Vi Jacobs to the driver’s seat of heavy construction equipment, as she broke the ground driving a track hoe. Vi broke ground in a similar fashion at the 1998 groundbreaking for Market Creek Plaza.
The Joe and Vi Jacobs Community Center is planned as a 75,000-sq. ft., three-story building housing a cultural training kitchen, a state-of-the-art meeting and conference center, accessible community and office space, a showplace for public art, a neighborhood gathering place, and the headquarters for the Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation (JCNI).
The building site is located between Food 4 Less and Where the World Meets on the Market Creek Plaza site. Market Creek Plaza is the $23.5 million innovative commercial and cultural center planned, designed, built, leased, and now operated by teams of community residents. With creativity, respect for cultural diversity, and passion for their community, resident teams transformed the site of an old dilapidated aerospace factory into a vibrant community hub with 11 national and local businesses (some owned or managed by local residents) and more than 170 new jobs.
Residents are the stakeholders and shareholders in this large-scale, community economic development project designed as a catalyst for broad neighborhood transformation. The Plaza is funded by a unique public-private partnership that brought together public and private, non-profit and for-profit funding partners, including the largest New Markets Tax Credit loan in southern California. Planning for the Center began in 1999 as a partnership with resident teams and JCNI. As plans moved forward, resident teams suggested naming the new community center for Joe and Vi as a tribute to their commitment to the community, their spirit of entrepreneurship, and their love for arts culture and learning.
“We want to name the building for them so we will not forget them. We can’t forget them,” said Ardelle Matthews, long-time community resident and member of several Market Creek Plaza resident teams. “They’re the impetus for making Market Creek Plaza that bright spot on the corner of Market and Euclid. They asked us what we wanted, invited us to envision it, and challenged us to build it. They’ve made us know we are partners together. I’m so proud of what this community is becoming.”
Joe, Vi, and their three daughters (San Diego’s other philanthropic Jacobs family) are the founders of the JCNI and the Jacobs Family Foundation (JFF). Children of Lebanese immigrants, Joe and Vi started a small business that grew into the $5-billion worldwide engineering company, Jacobs Engineering Group. In 1988, Joe and Vi created the family foundation and asked their three daughters to join them. Over time, their work focused on neighborhood strengthening and led them to work with residents in developing Market Creek Plaza.
Joe Jacobs, who passed away last year at the age of 88, shared his passion for entrepreneurship and unwavering belief in community self-determination, resident ownership and asset development. The family is committed to pursuing a pioneering approach to private philanthropy, believing that granting money project-by-project and year-to-year rarely has a lasting impact. They are literally “betting the farm” that this approach will work, by investing in it the foundations’ assets.
“They believe that the key to making profound and enduring community change is by partnering with community stakeholders, encouraging residents to drive and own the change in their neighborhoods,” said Jennifer Vanica, president of both foundations. “The family’s style of philanthropy is based on deep-seated values and beliefs that respect people’s inherit dignity, independence, and ability to solve their own. Two of their daughters, Valerie and Meg, and their son-in-law, Norm, live in San Diego and help guide the foundations in their groundbreaking community development work.”
To date, the foundations have provided more than $41 million in technical assistance, training, and program support in San Diego. JFF’s $4.5 million investment in Market Creek Plaza leveraged another $19 million in resources for the community.
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The Jacobs Center for Neighborhood Innovation is a non-profit foundation that operates on the premise that residents must own and drive the change that takes place in their community for it to be meaningful and long-lasting. JCNI explores new pathways to change through entrepreneurial relationships, hands-on training, and the creative investment of resources.
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