The Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellevue broke ground on a new 27,000 square foot clubhouse in Downtown Bellevue on Oct. 8, a project that has been in the works for at least a decade.

“It’s fabulous to finally start,” Kathy Haggart, president and CEO of Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellevue, said at the groundbreaking ceremony. “I don’t think my staff really believe it until we got here today.”

The new building, named after Jim and Sally A. Nordstrom of the eponymous fashion retail chain, will house a gym, tech lab, teaching kitchen, games room, tween/teen multipurpose space and internet café, community room, education center, and preschool.

The clubhouse also will serve as a multi-generational community center when it is not in use for youth programming.

After completion, the new facility is expected to increase the number of kids served daily by as much as 70 percent, according to the organization.

“Given the projected growth in the downtown area, we are confident this facility will help meet the growing needs of families in our community” Haggart said.

The Boys and Girls Clubs of Bellevue has owned the downtown property for decades. It was built in the 1940s and was remodeled in the 1970s. Due to an inefficient layout, less than half of the existing space is useable for programed activities and the facility has outlived its serviceable life cycle with failing systems and recurring leaks throughout, according to the organization.

In 2012, the organization’s board of directors approved a measure to move forward with a capital campaign to fund the construction of the now-open Field House in Hidden Valley and the main clubhouse in downtown. Altogether, they hoped to raise $11 million for the downtown project, of which they have raised $9 million.

The organization also worked with the city of Bellevue on this project and a handful of other locations. The  city contributed $1.5 million for the downtown location and gave funding and assisted with construction on the Hidden Valley and the East Bellevue locations.

Mayor Claudia Balducci and city council members John Stokes and Lynne Robinson were on hand for the groundbreaking, and spoke to the benefits of a new downtown location.

“It’s just been this tremendous partnership, starting with the Ground Zero facility. It’s kind of an unprecedented thing for an organization to have this long of a partnership with a city, but it’s gone so well and they prove such great amenities,” said Balducci.

The new facility will be sited on the north end of the property allowing the existing clubhouse to remain in operation while the new clubhouse is being constructed. Construction is expected take approximately 10 months with the projected opening in fall of 2016.