HOTEL INC Board of Directors Vice President Charlie Cole (with scissors) and Executive Director Rhondell Miller (next to Cole) celebrate with the nonprofit’s supporters and staff Monday during a ribbon cutting for a new headquarters building on Boatlanding Road.

To meet its mission of helping build better lives for those needing help with health, housing and nutrition, Bowling Green nonprofit organization HOTEL INC has done some building of its own.

The nonprofit’s new Boatlanding Road headquarters, which includes a branch of the Warren County Public Library and is adjacent to the new Delafield Co-op Market, celebrated its grand opening Monday.

Some 80 people crowded into a structure that was put up on the same site as the old HOTEL INC (for Helping Others Through Extending Love In The Name of Christ) headquarters, which was declared uninhabitable in 2021 because of structural and mold problems.

“We haven’t had our full usable space since March of 2021,” said Rhondell Miller, HOTEL INC’s executive director for the past 11 years. “That building could not really be repaired, so we rebuilt on the same foundation to save money.”

It was still a huge undertaking, requiring the HOTEL INC board of directors to raise nearly $500,000.

A frenetic fundraising campaign, boosted by a $100,000 match from the Vince and Kathleen Berta Family Foundation, came to fruition Monday as Miller and others showed off a facility that the nonprofit’s leadership believes will help it better meet its mission.

“I can’t believe we’ve made it to today,” said Miller, who estimates that the fundraising campaign is now within $40,000 of its goal.

The new building, which gained some square footage by connecting to the adjacent former Little Rock Church building that dates to the 1890s, was part of HOTEL INC’s long-range plan and was fast-tracked by the mold problem.

“It was in our vision to remodel anyway,” Miller said. “We just had to move it forward.”

Charlie Cole, vice president of the HOTEL INC board of directors, said the new building will allow the nonprofit to continue the services it has been providing to the Delafield community for the past 40 years and even expand those services.

“This campus and your care and support are going to keep us going for another 40 years,” said Cole, addressing a group of supporters that included members of the Berta family.

Kathleen Berta said her family’s support of the building project grew out of her own volunteer work at HOTEL INC.

“When we started the Berta Family Foundation, our mission was to increase self-sufficiency in our community,” she said. “I was directed to HOTEL INC and became involved financially.

“It’s important to me to be hands-on, so I started volunteering. It has been incredibly rewarding for me and has made me a better person. It never ceases to amaze me how much they do.”

HOTEL INC’s programming has grown under Miller’s leadership to include not only assistance with housing but a street medicine program, disaster recovery and other initiatives that are part of what Miller calls a “holistic approach” to meeting the needs of residents in Bowling Green’s west end.

The nonprofit has grown from an annual budget of around $85,000 when Miller was hired to more than $1 million today, and its staff has expanded from Miller and one part-timer to include 10 full-timers.

That growth now includes a new building that will have public meeting space Delafield residents can rent for birthday parties and other events and a library that includes a computer lab.

“Rhondell called us and asked if we could build a library in that space,” said Courtney Stevens, Warren County Public Library interim director. “We could not be more excited to be here.

“This place is essential. We all know what it feels like when life gets uncomfortable. We are in a place that provides comfort.”

The new building will only add to the continuing expansion of HOTEL INC’s services. The nonprofit added the co-op market in March, providing food items that are largely locally sourced, and Miller said it already has more than 300 members.

While that market has brought fresh food to an area previously considered a “food desert,” Kathleen Berta believes the new building will nourish the Delafield community in other ways.

“It’s a lovely space,” she said. “The library and computer lab will allow the community to experience personal growth.”