The Catholic Foundation Relocates Headquarters to Historic Building

The Catholic Foundation will soon have a new home at the site of the original Wendy's restaurant at 257 E. Broad Street, across the street from St. Joseph Cathedral.

From November 15, 1969 when the first Wendy's opened its doors until the closing in March 2007, this Wendy's served millions of hamburgers to the Columbus community. The Catholic Foundation will remodel the structure into its headquarters.

"This restaurant is very significant to the Wendy's family -- it's where the first square hamburgers and Frostys were served by Dave Thomas and his dedicated crew nearly 40 years ago," said David Karam, president of Wendy's. "There's a lot of history in this building, we are very pleased that it will be the new home of the Catholic Foundation and continue to serve the community in a different way."

Outgrowing their offices on South High Street, the Foundation is working with local architect David Meleca of Meleca Architecture to create a headquarters for both staff offices and meeting space.

"When the Foundation moves to its new offices in early 2010, we will be expanding what many in the community refer to as Cathedral Square," said Jennifer Damiano, executive director of The Catholic Foundation. "Our new headquarters will help us develop key partnerships as we continue to meet the growing needs of our parishes, schools and many other social services in our community."

The Catholic Foundation is a non-profit autonomous organization that receives and manages assets to provide funding for the parishes, schools and ministries within the 23-county Diocese of Columbus. In its first 25 years, it has invested more than $40 million in charitable causes within the Diocese of Columbus. It is the planned-giving partner of the Diocese, working with donors throughout the Diocese to help them develop giving plans to benefit their chosen Catholic entities, and it invests and manages the assets entrusted to it.