A humble building aims to turn a Tri-Cities neighborhood to a place of ‘hope and safety’

Frank Murillo was moved by a sermon on giving back when speaker and author Reggie McNeal spoke at Hillspring Church in Richland.

“God was talking to me,” recalled the Tri-City auto executive.

He consulted with Bryan White, Hillspring’s lead pastor, and Trevor Owen, its pastor for spiritual outreach, with an idea. He wanted to use empty restaurant space that he owns in downtown Kennewick as a gathering place for migrant and low-income families.

Wheels began spinning, Owen joked.

Murillo thought the squat building would be a great place to carry out his vision. In 2022, he paid $425,000 for the two-story building, which came with 5,000-square-feet of vacant restaurant space and four apartments on the second floor.

He repainted the exterior and updated the apartments, which are not part of the church outreach.

“I bought an old, ugly building that is going to be beautiful,” said Murillo.

Seeking ideas

Just what the community center will offer is up to the people who will use it.

Hillspring is surveying neighbors for ideas and posting banners on the building and notices on social media. About 80 people have weighed in.

Ideas include creating a safe place for at-risk children to go after school to hang out, have snacks and do homework, cooking demonstrations, movie nights, performances and community education programs, including English as a Second Language and job training programs.

Owen and Murillo said their community center will complement, not compete with, the Kennewick Boys and Girls Clubhouse on West Seventh Ave, not far away.

Notably, it will not be an overtly spiritual outreach.

The church sees a need and a calling in the neighborhood.

For 10 years, it has run After School Matters at Eastgate Elementary School, one of four schools within easy walking distance. Students have stayed with the program even as they move up to middle and then high school.

There are 34 students enrolled, with 12-18 high schoolers still participating.

Sense of community

For Murillo, the building sends a message that the community cares about its poorest students.

Today he is general manager for Lithia Motors Inc. in the Tri-Cities. His upbringing was more modest as a kid, he was one of them.

He was nine when his family immigrated to the U.S. from Mexico as migrant farm workers.

The family moved frequently with the harvest, moving from asparagus fields in the spring to cherry orchards in June and on through the growing cycle.

He jokes he attended every elementary school in the Columbia Basin, but his fondest memories are of the sense of community in the former Navy housing in east Pasco, with the Boys and Girls Club of its day.

“I can relate to these kids,” he said.

Owen said the East First community center will run under the church’s Tri-City Community Connections arm, which also operates the After School Matters program, a bicycle program and a mobile market.

“The purpose of this is for kids to have a home,” Murillo said. That means providing beverages, sandwiches and snacks after school, for free if need to be.

Hillspring boasts more than 1,000 members and regularly draws several hundred to weekly services. The church is committed to community, which includes dedicating offers from its fifth Sunday services.

When it put banners on the building, the feedback was instant. Neighbors asked to help, as did a letter carrier. One neighbor arrived with cash she’d collected from the area to support the initiative. And another church has donated its support.

“Obviously God is doing something,” Owen said.

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