FAIRFIELD – This summer’s move from Springdale to Fairfield will give the Cincinnati Center for Autism more space to serve additional children. The center has purchased an empty, 3-story office building at 100 Commercial Drive, just south of Furniture Fair.

The non-profit center was founded by Fairfield residents Matt and Susan Brennan 20 years ago and is now housed in a former church in Springdale.

“We’re really excited about moving to Fairfield,’’ said Susie Wolfe, the center’s executive director. “It’s a mile-and-a-half from where we are right now.”

The autism center currently serves about 60 children from ages 3-21 and has a waiting list, Wolfe said. With the larger building, the center would like to expand to 100 students within the next five years.

“We look like a school and function like a school but we’re really an educational behavior center,’’ Wolfe said.

The center began as an early intervention program in Butler County, serving about 16 children. Today it provides educational, occupational, speech, music and behavioral services from trained therapists. About 60 people are employed by the center. Its clients now come from 26 school districts in Butler, Hamilton and Warren counties.

The move to Fairfield gives the center room to expand and repurposes an office building empty since 2020.

“The office market – regionally, local, nationally, internationally – has been significantly impacted since Covid,’’ said Nathaniel Kaelin, Fairfield’s economic development manager. “We feel like reoccupying this vacant building will be part of a positive change in that (Ohio 4) corridor.”

The center has completed drawings to convert the first and second floors into classroom and therapy rooms along with offices. Work is expected to begin soon and be completed in August. No renovations are planned for the third floor at this time, Wolfe said.

To assist the center, Fairfield City Council last month approved a $100,000 forgivable loan. The money comes from a federal $3 million American Rescue Plan Act allocation from Butler County targeted to redevelopment projects along the Ohio 4 corridor.

Under terms of the five-year loan, the center would have to begin operations in Fairfield no later than Oct. 31.

The annual $20,000 installment would be forgiven each year the center employed a minimum of 45 people and the city received income tax of at least $22,500.

This article originally appeared on Cincinnati Enquirer: Cincinnati Center for Autism moving to Fairfield