Coca-Cola plant to be used as offices for Middle Way House

Middle Way House plans to use $50,000 received in grant money to renovate a 73-year-old Coca-Cola bottling plant at 318 S. Washington St. Toby Strout, Middle Way executive director, said renovation will begin in October. The building should be finished by mid-August of next year. \nMiddle Way bought the plant in April 2005 with money it received from a deceased donor who mentioned the organization in her will. Strout said that, prior to receiving the money, she and others at Middle Way House knew they would have to move from their current location at 404 W. Kirkwood Ave. She saw the purchase of the plant as a much-needed gift.\n“The house we’re in now is more than 100 years old,” Strout said. “(The donation) was a sign.”\nStrout said that for two years after buying the plant, the organization applied for grants to rehabilitate the more than 10,000-square-foot building. The grant, received in June from the Department for Historic Preservation and Archaeology, will enable the organization to fix the floors, which have holes from Coca-Cola spills, among other leftover features from the plant’s other uses. Middle Way House had an initial budget of $3.5 million for the renovation, but Strout said that, after receiving the grant, the budget has now grown.\n“We really are trying to raise as much (money) as we can through grants,” she said.\nStrout said nothing will be added to the existing structure. The first floor, which used to house conveyor belts and machinery, will be made into a kitchen. Middle Way Food Works will use the kitchen and will create jobs for women staying at the shelter. The plant will also have an intensive green roof, and a building will be built next door to house a garden. Both will go to either Food Works, a program that caters for child care programs including ones at IU, or to feed the people at the shelter.\nAnother feature of the new Middle Way House building will be a kitchen incubator. Food Works will be using the kitchen, but only between the hours of 6 a.m. and 2 p.m. After that, Middle Way will let anyone from the community use the kitchen facilities for business purposes. In this way, the kitchen will be an “incubator” where new businesses can grow. Charlotte Zietlow, economic development coordinator and fund developer for the project, said that in this way, Middle Way House will provide opportunities for a larger number of people.\n“(The renovation will be) not only valuable to Middle Way House, but also to the larger community,” she said. “We’ll be interacting with the community in more ways.”\nThe second floor, which is currently open space, will be divided into six apartments for women in the shelter. The plant also has an area on top that was added in the 1940s, which will be converted into an area for child care.\nStrout said the apartments on the second floor will only be one-bedroom apartments, which is unusual for Middle Way House. She also said battered women often lose custody battles and visiting rights due to the less-than-ideal living conditions of the shelters where they reside. In this way, Strout said she thinks the new building will help.\n“It provides a nice place for visiting children,” she said.\nZietlow agreed, adding that a level of comfort will come with the renovated building for those who will work and live there.\n“We’ll be able to provide our services in better, more comforting surroundings,” she said. “We’ll be able to serve everyone better with their new ‘digs,’ for lack of a better word.”