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After nine months of renovations, the Jewish Council for the Aging last week cut the ribbon on its new 36,000-square-foot facility in Rockville, which organizers say will let them serve more seniors than ever.

In addition to expanded community meeting rooms, technology training facilities and counseling offices, the agency has partnered with The Nonprofit Village to sublet administrative office space on the second floor to nonprofits that serve Montgomery County.

"I hope this truly will become a regional center for the aging," Jewish Council for the Aging Executive Director David Gamse said.

He said the square footage at its last location, just a half-mile away from the new location on Parklawn Drive in the Twinbrook neighborhood, was around 5,600 square feet — less than half the area of one floor at the new facility.

The Jewish Council for the Aging (JCA) provides information on aging, transportation assistance, clubs, healthy living courses, computer skills development, and employment training and placement for seniors living in the Washington, D.C., metropolitan area.

County Executive Isiah Leggett (D) and County Council President Philip M. Andrews (D-Dist. 3) of Gaithersburg attended the ribbon-cutting ceremony, and Leggett was given a certificate of appreciation from the agency for keeping renovation funding in the county's budget during a difficult fiscal year.

The county allotted $250,000 for the renovations, Gamse said. The state contributed $1 million and the agency received $1.5 million in philanthropic donations, he said.

The Nonprofit Village, designed as a one-stop location for charitable organizations, funded much of the renovation of the second floor of the new JCA building, Gamse said. It has signed a 10-year lease.

"We are the first multi-tenant non-profit center in Montgomery County," said Jeffrey Z. Slavin, chairman of The Nonprofit Village board and mayor of the Town of Somerset. "Affordable housing is a big problem in this county, and so is affordable space for nonprofits."

The Nonprofit Village aims to fix that, offering some of its spaces for just $250 a month. It already has several tenants lined up.

The first to sign on was the Chinese American Senior Services Association Inc., which has similar goals as the Jewish Council for the Aging.

Vivien Hseuh, president of the association, said finding a place for her organization to call home was a relief. "We mostly depend on grants and contributions to survive. We like it here because it is close in and affordable."