The Ray & Joan Kroc Corps Community Center planned for Guayama, Puerto Rico, has gained the necessary approvals to advance to the design phase.

Captain Ricardo Fernandez, commander of the Puerto Rico & Virgin Islands Division, received notification of the approval in a letter dated Sept. 22 from Commissioner Lawrence R. Moretz, territorial commander.

Moretz said the territory’s board of trustees voted on Aug. 26 to approve a capital award of $12.5 million and an endowment of $9 million.

“… We need to continue to remind ourselves that the gift strengthens our organization’s efforts to continue and expand what matters most to each of us—the carrying out of The Salvation Army mission, to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ, and to meet human needs in His name without discrimination,” Moretz wrote.

Guayama is on the island’s southern coast, not far from Ponce, and is home to Interamerican University.

Moretz wrote that the division must gain ownership of the property, develop a local advisory board/Kroc committee in Guayama, organize a Kroc property committee, and identify fund–raising gifts for local equipment.

The territory has announced proposed Kroc centers in Boston; Philadelphia; Staten Island, N.Y.; Massena, N.Y.; Camden, N.J.; and Ashland and Dayton, Ohio. The two Ohio Kroc centers have broken ground and are under construction.

McDonald’s heiress Joan Kroc, who died in 2003, made the Kroc centers possible by leaving The Salvation Army a $1.5 billion gift in her will. The Eastern Territory’s share of the trust will be about $450 million.

Kroc stipulated in her will that the gift be used for construction costs and a partial endowment for operations; the Army has been raising funds to sustain the centers.