The Bridge drug treatment program closes escrow on a more expansive location.

Space was tight at The Bridge Restoration Ministry in Pacific Grove, a multi-phase drug rehabilitation program begun in 2006 in a historic eight-bedroom home where 22 men live and receive treatment. If a counselor came to meet with someone, there was no private place to chat. There was no classroom for vocational training. And there was a waiting list.

“One of the hardest things for me is when I get a call from a parent and I don’t have room,” says Executive Director Mike Casey, a former addict himself. He and his wife Michele knew for years they needed a larger location.

“[We] always kept our eye out for the perfect place,” he says. “On the Peninsula the two biggest issues are water and parking.” Nowhere seemed to have everything they needed.

Last year the perfect place appeared, the former Ave Maria Convalescent Hospital, owned by the Catholic Diocese of Monterey, located on Josselyn Canyon Road in Monterey, surrounded by an oak forest. The nearly 7-acre property was on the market for about $6 million. It had the space the Caseys dreamed of: two large buildings with individual rooms, plus meeting rooms, a kitchen, a chapel and offices – over 21,000 square feet total. The grounds also include a small house where a priest once lived and over 30 parking spaces.

“My wife and I looked at each other and said, ‘Absolutely not. It’s too big and too much money,’” Casey says. The building was also under contract with someone else.

Then the contract fell through, and The Bridge’s donors came up with funds to purchase the property for nearly $5 million. Escrow closed on March 1.

Even before it closed, The Bridge team began preparing spaces to welcome the men. (A women’s program with 20 participants remains in P.G.)

While they believe they can accept more men in the future, they aren’t planning on growing the program right away as they befriend the neighbors. Casey and his wife will live on the property in the former priest’s house.

Casey says the new space could mean expanding the types of vocational training they offer. They already have a culinary program, where participants learn how to make food for sale. The Bridge provides grab-and-go items for The Power Plant in Moss Landing and Community Hospital of the Monterey Peninsula. He envisions possibilities like coffee roasting or bread baking.

Miguel Rodriguez of Salinas is one of the men who will move into the new space. He entered the one-year residential program less than five months ago. He’s finding new purpose working as the lead facilities person at Calvary Church Monterey, where Casey is an associate pastor and leads a thriving recovery ministry.

“It’s been a breath of fresh air,” Rodriguez says of his time with The Bridge. “What they’re doing here really comes from the heart.” He believes the peaceful environment and connection to nature at the new location will be helpful to the men in recovery. “It’s been a total blessing to everybody,” Rodriguez says.