God's Pit Crew has an eye toward the future

God’s Pit Crew has made good use of the space in their headquarters on North Main Street since moving there in 2005 and contracting to purchase it from Roman Eagle Memorial Home Inc. last year.

The huge warehouse stores supplies they load up at a moment’s notice to head for a disaster. A nicely decorated area on the first floor gives visitors a glance at their work with framed newspaper articles and photos on the wall. Offices in between the first and second floor on a mezzanine level keep the work organized and moving along.

But the disaster relief organization has plenty of space left that it wants to share with other organizations helping people. Although God’s Pit Crew uses 65,000 square feet of the building downstairs, there is still 130,000-square-feet more upstairs.

“Our vision is to turn this building into a care center with a mall-like atmosphere where non-profits can operate and work together in bigger, nicer space and in theory for less money,” Randy Johnson, executive director, said.

The vision of Johnson and the board of directors of God’s Pit Crew is that the building will become the “Danville Care Center: Humanitarian and Educational Complex.” That title is the current working name.

“Each non-profit would have its own suite with a (common) courtyard in the middle,” Johnson explained. “Folks in need could come to one place. Our vision includes a place for donated school supplies so teachers could get free supplies and a banquet hall for non-profits and civic groups.”

According to Johnson, it would take approximately $6 million to totally renovate the building. The plan and design is all laid out in the five-year business plan God’s Pit Crew recently completed with a $50,000 grant provided by the Danville Regional Foundation.

“Our goal is to renovate the interior and exterior and build out the tenants’ spaces at no upfront cost to them,” he said. “Then we will rent it to the tenants at a minimal monthly cost. Our goal is to make their jobs easy and not to make money off of them.”

Plans include having a coordinator for the center, sharing conference rooms and office equipment and offering education programs.

“We want to give a leg up, not a hand out,” Johnson said. “When it comes to pass, it will help those in need who can come to one location for all their needs.”

Of course, there has to be enough money to maintain the center after it is finished.

“We have to sustain it, but that’s enough,” Johnson said. “We truly want to help (the non-profits) do what they do better.”