The Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County, the nonprofit that provides youth development programs, says it has broken ground on a $1.3 million facility next to the Post Falls Library.

Ryan Davis, the nonprofit's executive director, says the 10,000-square-foot facility is being built at 200 W. Mullan, with completion scheduled for the end of November. It will have a game room, gymnasium, computer lab and homework room, art and wellness center, teen center, cafe, administrative office, and large outdoor field for activities.

"It also has a kitchen to run some food programs as well," Davis says, adding that the building design allows for a future 4,000-square-foot addition. The contractor is Polin & Young Construction Inc. of Coeur d'Alene. ML Architect & Associates Inc., of Post Falls, designed the building.

The new facility will be named in honor of Jordan Johnson, a Post Falls student-athlete who died in 2006 at age 15 due to a heart condition. It will formally be called The Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County Jordan Johnson Center.

Davis says the Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County is headquartered in Post Falls and serves a total of almost 500 kids a year. It has offered programs in Post Falls since the end of 2007 from temporary quarters at the Church of the Nazarene, at 308 W. 12th. The club also runs programs out of the Coeur d'Alene School District's Sorensen Magnet School of the Arts and Humanities, at 310 N. 9th.

Davis says the church in Post Falls offered the use of its facility, but it was always meant to be a temporary site. The new Post Falls building has room to accommodate upwards of 750 young people, he says. "This will more than double our space and give us the ability to offer programs to the kids we serve," Davis adds.

Overall, the organization employs 12, including Davis, an operations director, and 10 part-time youth development staff that run after-school youth programs.

The club has held a longtime capital fundraising campaign for a permanent facility, he says, and the property for the new center became available under a 30-year lease with the city of Post Falls.

"The land was owned by the Post Falls School District and they had no use for it, so they transferred it to the city of Post Falls, which has in turn leased the land to the Boys & Girls Club," Davis says. "We will continue to use the Coeur d'Alene site that we have been using. Our long-term plan is to eventually build a permanent facility there (in Coeur d'Alene) as well."

Davis says the club, through its fundraising, still is seeking about $200,000 in donations toward furniture and equipment for the Post Falls building.

Davis adds that many people in Post Falls supported the facility, and the club plans to allow community use through other youth and nonprofit agencies, including the city's parks and recreation department.

The Boys & Girls Club of Kootenai County provides youth programs geared toward character and leadership development through such activities as community service and youth councils; education and career pursuits; health and life skills; arts programs; and sports, fitness, and recreation.

Membership fees are $20 per year, its website says. In the U.S., Boys & Girls Clubs of America says it has nearly 4,000 Boys & Girls Clubs that serve about 4 million children and teens.