CASA Kane County plans to close on a property in June that will be its permanent new home after moving out of the Kane County Courthouse office in Geneva.

The purchase will be an office condominium in the Fox Valley with a closing in June, making the location public, and moving in by fall, Executive Director Jim Di Ciaula said. The nonprofit provides trained advocates for children moving through the court system.

“We’ve completed due diligence on a 5,000-square-foot office condominium that’s within a five-mile radius of the Juvenile Justice Center, because it’s important for us to be in close proximity to the courthouse,” Di Ciaula said.

At 5,000 square feet, the new location will be bigger than the current 4,074 square feet in Suite 430 at the Kane County Courthouse, 100 S. Third St., Geneva.

“The square footage is deceiving, too – it depends on how it’s arranged,” Di Ciaula said. “It’s a highly efficient setup that will not require us to do much in the way of construction. Limited. And that makes it very enticing. ... No walls are coming down, no walls are going up, we do not need a new roof.”

The new site will have storage space below and parking.

“We are fortunate that a lot of furniture is going to remain in the property and we have many pieces that will fit and it will be like merging two households. And then we’ll need a few things.”

The building is two stories and CASA will be one of two on the first floor.

“We will own our spot. It’s less than 20% of the whole building. Another advantage of buying is that, as a charity nonprofit, we could apply for a real estate tax exemption ... so that’s very favorable in the buy,” Di Ciaula said. “If you were leasing, we would have to pay it because it’s being pushed down.”

CASA serves 600 to 650 children per year who are in foster care because of abuse or neglect, representing about 350 cases.

Last year, 229 children returned to their families, were adopted or received guardianship.

“That’s a lot of kids. That’s why we started the Circle of Care – How do we come together and change the trajectory we’re on? – because we should be out of business,” Di Ciaula said. “The reality is – like Judge Villa said – we’re here and it’s a sad reason. We’re here and we’re doing good work, but it’s still too bad that we need to be here.”

Di Cuala was referring to CASA’s annual Hands Around the Courthouse event during April, which is Child Abuse Prevention Month. Kane County Chief Judge Robert Villa was one of the speakers.

Circle of Care is a new initiative launched this year, bringing services that address mental health, early prevention, housing, food instability and childcare together.

Di Cuala said CASA will start a capital campaign called CASA Kane County Center for Hope in May or June to pay for the new office condo.

The goal has not yet been set, he said. He said the capital campaign will also support CASA’s future goals to enhance programming and advocacy work.

“It is being tested with donors that we’ve done a bunch of testing on the message of the concept,” Di Ciuala said.

CASA lists assets of $6 million in its IRS filing. Di Ciuala said about half of that, $3 million, is from an endowment that does not allow it to be used for buying property.

“When that endowment was set up, it was set up for long-term sustainability and it does a payout every year, usually around 4%, which helps support our operations,” he said.

CASA can’t access the principal or the earnings for a building.

“The other thing that we want to be really transparent about, is all of the fundraising done to date, it’s always been directed towards programming and the services we provide to children,” he said. “We want support on the building side. We have never said, ‘Your money is going to support a building.’”

According to its leases, CASA has paid $10 per year to the county for the space.

CASA’s move was also prompted by State’s Attorney Jamie Mosser, who found that it was illegal for the county to lease courthouse space to a nonprofit – plus the county needs the space that CASA is currently in for its own needs.

“I have no comment,” Di Ciuala said. “But I will tell you, many cases are in courthouses across the state of Illinois. But two wrongs don’t make a right.”

In an email, Mosser wrote that the statutes “are clear as day that a non-profit cannot be in a courthouse.”

“As the attorney for the County, I have to provide legal advice to the County to protect them from lawsuits,” Mosser wrote. “In this case, no matter the good work that CASA does, they cannot be housed in a courthouse.”

Mosser cited 55ILCS 5/5-17001, which states, “Leasing space in court house. Whenever there is space in the county court house not needed for county purposes, the county board may lease such space to the state or any court thereof, to any city, village, town, sanitary district or other municipal corporation for such period of time and upon such terms as may seem just and equitable to the board.”