LONGMONT TIMES-CALL: Recovery Café Longmont Finds New Main Street Home by Dana Cadey

Recovery Café Longmont Finds New Main Street Home

by Dana Cadey | dcadey@prairiemountainmedia.com

Originally Published July 12th, 2024 for Longmont Times-Call

Five years after its founding, local nonprofit Recovery Café Longmont is ready to continue its life-changing work in a bigger and better space.

Recovery Café Longmont provides services for people working through traumatic experiences, drug and alcohol abuse. Since its founding in 2019, the nonprofit has operated out of the basement of Central Presbyterian Church at 402 Kimbark St.

Now, Recovery Café Longmont has secured a new home at 801 Main St., a space that will be dedicated solely to the nonprofit. The building was formerly the site of HOPE’s Storehouse, a thrift store that raised money for humanitarian aid.

“They were a fantastic partner in all of this,” said Jen Jepsen, executive director of Recovery Café Longmont. “It felt like a really nice handoff.”

Recovery Café Longmont bought the building on June 24 for $1.1 million. Jepsen said the nonprofit received a sizable grant from the city to fund most of the purchase.

The Recovery Café Longmont team is still in the earliest stages of developing the new space to fit the nonprofit’s needs. Staff have started working with architects to redesign the building, and the first neighborhood meeting will be held later this month.

“We’ve talked to some of the key neighbors, and they’re pretty excited for us to come in,” said Virginia Choung, director of philanthropy for the café.

As HOPE’s Storehouse only moved its items out of the building a couple of weeks ago, remnants of the thrift store are still present, from changing rooms in the corner to the purple and gold paint on the walls. Recovery Café Longmont has big plans for the renovations, including adding offices and building an outdoor courtyard in the back.

Choung said the nonprofit has wanted a space of its own since it began.

“That was always the plan,” Choung explained. “It’s been a while in the making.”

The nonprofit will also finally be able to officially live up to its name — a commercial kitchen and a barista bar will allow the organization to operate as a full café, something that wasn’t possible in its original location.

“The model is that we can provide job readiness training for our members who are interested in developing some vocational skills,” Choung said.

The finished property will be around 7,000 square feet, a major upgrade from the former location’s 2,000 square feet. The expansion will let the nonprofit serve a variety of groups at the same time, including ones that aren’t part of the café’s programming, as well as host more one-on-one sessions with members.

“This way, we can do everything simultaneously and really be more of a community hub for recovery services,” Choung said. “The potential for this place is so exciting for everyone.”

One of the most exciting features of the new space, Jepsen said, is the view of Main Street from the windows. After five years in a basement headquarters, the natural light is a welcome change. The new building also allows Recovery Café Longmont to finally offer wheelchair access.

While it will be at least a couple of years before the building is completely renovated and ready for use, Jepsen said Recovery Café Longmont’s members are happy to have a new home base.

“It’s pretty thrilling to own this,” Jepsen said. “The accessibility is huge, and the visibility is huge.”

On Sept. 7, Recovery Café Longmont will celebrate its fifth anniversary with a public showcase of the new building. In its five years, the nonprofit has served almost 2,000 individuals.

“It was just this little seedling of an idea, and then the right people came together across the community to create this beautiful organization,” Jepsen said. “It’s fun to have some roots, and then to grow into this space in this part of town. It’ll be a great beginning for the next five, ten, twenty-five years.”