photo by: Chad Lawhorn/Journal-World

The Lawrence-based nonprofit DCCCA has filed plans to tear down the old elementary school building at 1739 E. 23rd Street, which it has used as offices for outpatient substance abuse treatment services. Plans call for a much larger 17,000 square foot building to be built on the site to house outpatient treatment and other offices for DCCCA.

Plans have been filed for a $7 million building on the eastern edge of Lawrence, with a likelihood that portions of the new building will house an outpatient substance abuse treatment center.

DCCCA, one of the largest nonprofit agencies in Lawrence, has filed plans at City Hall to construct an approximately 17,000-square foot building just east of 23rd and Harper streets in eastern Lawrence.

The property at 1739 E. 23rd Street already houses a DCCCA facility, which is located in a 1950s-era school building that DCCCA purchased in the 1990s. That small facility houses a variety of offices for DCCCA, and also serves as a location for people to receive outpatient behavioral health treatments, such as counseling for drug or alcohol abuse.

A spokesman for DCCCA said the organization wasn’t yet in a position to announce its full plans for the new building, but said outpatient treatment services are part of the plans for the facility.

“We are really just preparing for the future,” said Alex Wiebel, communications strategist for DCCCA.

Wiebel said he wasn’t aware of any plans by DCCCA to use the new facility as a site for inpatient substance abuse treatment, meaning that people would stay overnight and for days at a time while receiving treatment.

The plans filed with City Hall also make no mention of that type of use, listing the new facility simply as an office building. But there has been talk in the community for years about the need for an inpatient substance abuse treatment facility. DCCCA operates an inpatient facility, known as First Step at Lake View, at 31st and Iowa streets. However, that facility is only for females.

Wiebel said DCCCA isn’t planning any changes for its Lake View facility. He also said DCCCA plans to keep its corporate headquarters at Clinton Parkway and Kasold Drive in west Lawrence.

The new facility near 23rd and Harper will be significantly bigger than the old school building that is on the site. That leaves questions about what else DCCCA plans to do at the location. When asked whether DCCCA plans to add new jobs as part of the project, Wiebel said it was too early to say.

“Again, we are just preparing for the future,” he said. “I don’t have any details on what it would look like for employment opportunities.

“Who knows what the future will look like. We are getting all those things in order.”

DCCCA has about 240 employees at multiple locations across the state, although the majority are based in Lawrence, Wiebel said.

The building project will be a significant undertaking. Plans filed with the city estimate it will cost about $7 million to construct the new building. While DCCCA is still finalizing how it will use the facility, it hopes to get started on construction soon. The plans indicated the organization would like to begin construction this summer.

Plans call for the existing building — which previously was the India Elementary School before being closed decades ago — to be demolished. The new building, however, will be constructed on the back half of the property, farther away from 23rd Street, according to the plans on file.

DCCCA is a nonprofit that got started in Lawrence in 1974 by providing alcohol abuse treatment services in the community. By the 1980s, it had expanded to several locations across the state. Today, in addition to providing substance abuse treatment, it also has traffic safety programs, a division related to foster care and adoption, and other initiatives. It has offices or facilities in Lawrence, where its headquarters remain, plus Hays, Mission, Pittsburg, Pratt, Topeka, Wichita, Winfield, and Edmond, Oklahoma.