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It began life in 1928 as a middle school.
Now the César Chávez Community Center is getting a face-lift to bring it into the modern era.
RELATED: Riverside OKs $19.7 million for César Chávez Community Center upgrades
Construction has begun on a renovation of the center on Riverside’s Eastside.
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An artist’s rendering shows the inside of the renovated César Chávez Community Center in Riverside’s Eastside neighborhood. (Courtesy of city of Riverside)
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An artist’s rendering shows the inside of the renovated César Chávez Community Center in Riverside’s Eastside neighborhood. (Courtesy of city of Riverside)
City officials and other dignitaries celebrated the occasion Saturday, Nov. 15, with a ceremony inside the University Avenue center, which has long housed nonprofit and other organizations.
Construction is underway next to the center and expected to continue through 2027, Veronica Gutierrez, a recreation services coordinator for the city, wrote in an email. The gym and the Youth Opportunity Center inside Bobby Bonds Park, where the center sits, will remain open, she said.
In September, the Riverside City Council OK’d a $19.7 million construction contract for the project. The 2022-23 state budget included $25 million to remodel the center.
Today, the former University Heights Junior High School is the site of events for nonprofit and community groups as well as the Riverside Arts Academy.
Construction work will upgrade classrooms and the auditorium, the inside and outside of the building, and address maintenance issues.
The center’s overhaul isn’t the only project planned inside Bobby Bonds Park.
A new Eastside library is set to be built next to the center as well.
The Spc. Jesus S. Duran Eastside Library will make its permanent home there after the Riverside City Council in August approved $17.7 million in construction costs. The price tag is expected to be close to $21.5 million by the project’s end in mid-2027.
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