Simi to Build New Boys & Girls Club : Recreation: The city approves $3.3 million for a 25,000-square-foot building near City Hall. The group will pay $1.5 million for a 45-year lease.

More than a decade after pledging to better serve Simi Valley children, the City Council on Monday agreed to pour $3.3 million in city funds into a new Boys & Girls Club.

Although many cities help Boys & Girls Clubs, Simi Valley’s plan to build a new club is noteworthy, said Neil Macready, the clubs’ director of development in the West.

“This one is, I think, exceptional,” Macready said.

The deal is the envy of the six other local Boys & Girls Clubs. Most receive subsidized rent and thousands of dollars in city support each year, but nothing quite so grand as the Simi Valley project.

“It’s very generous of Simi Valley to do this,” said Jane Goldschmidt, executive director of the Ventura club. “We’ve received some very nice grants from Ventura, but certainly not enough to build a new building.”

Under the agreement, Simi Valley will construct a 25,000-square-foot building near City Hall and pay its full $3.3-million cost. The 2,000-member club is now squeezed into an old school building at the east end of town.

The Boys & Girls Club, which will share the building with the city’s parks district, has agreed to pay $1.5 million for a 45-year lease.

Simi Valley Mayor Greg Stratton acknowledged that the deal is unusual, especially for a city government that prides itself on pinching every penny.

“It is a unique agreement, but if you look at the numbers, this is a very young city,” Stratton said. “We’ve built and run a center for our seniors, but up to now we’ve done very little for the youth. This is our way of turning that around.”

Club President Timothy Shannon said the organization hopes to pay off the 45-year lease within eight years and is planning a five-year fund-raising drive.

“When people see that this is really going to happen, I think we’ll get a lot of community support,” Shannon said. “This is really going to benefit everyone in the community.”

Club directors began trying to relocate in the early 1980s, when a developer promised to build a new club in exchange for city approval of a housing tract.

When that deal fell through, club leaders looked to the city for help.

“We recognized the need for a place for kids to go, but we didn’t have any old buildings sitting around that we could give them,” Stratton said. “So instead, we offered them a piece of property.”

The city pledged money for the structure, too, after club officials said that they could not raise the funds.

The project was initially set for construction in 1992. But it has been held up by a legal dispute with a neighboring property owner, who argued that the new club would block his view.

The state Supreme Court refused to hear the owner’s appeal in May, clearing the way for the project.

“After hundreds and hundreds of hours of planning and talking and working to make this happen, I couldn’t be happier to see that this is finally going forward,” board member Linda White said. “I think we’re all really thrilled.”