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The Damien Center on Tuesday announced plans to renovate an east-side Indianapolis building and use it for a coffee shop and employment services center.
The building at 1446 E. Washington St. was previously home to LGBTQ+ nightclub Zonie’s Closet from 2008 to 2022 and drag and karaoke nightclub Illusions from the late 1990s until 2008.
Damien Center, Indiana’s oldest and largest AIDS service organization, purchased the 4,024-square-foot building in 2021 from the owner of Zonie’s Closet.
The employment services center that will allow the not-for-profit Damien Center to expand its employment services program so that it serve more than 500 individuals annually. The program is designed to help individuals to gain and maintain meaningful employment, attain a living wage, increase self-sufficiency and experience improved health and wellness.
The organization said a complete interior renovation, which is underway, includes structural repairs, all new sub-flooring on the main floor, new crawl-space access, utility work, and new accessible stairs from the front vestibule to the second floor.
The old 1,000-square-foot addition on the back of the structure will be demolished and replaced with a new 1,000-square-foot addition that will accommodate the addition of two ADA accessible restrooms as well as a secondary staircase to the second floor.
The project is being led by Schmidt Associates and The Skillman Corp. and is expected to be completed in early 2024.
In March, Damien Center also broke ground on a new 56,000-square-foot headquarters building at the corner of East Washington Street and Oriental Avenue. It plans to continue using its current 15,000-square-foot headquarters at 26 N. Arsenal Ave.
Damien Center has been raising funds to pay for the projects since 2021.
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Damien Center does such good work in the community.