Robert J. Bolton Jr. on The Interchurch Center: Strategic Homes for Mission-Driven Nonprofits
Author(s): Scott Douglas Jacobsen
Publication (Outlet/Website): Vocal.Media
Publication Date (yyyy/mm/dd): 2025/10
Robert J. Bolton Jr. is President and Executive Director (and Bishop) of The Interchurch Center, a Class A community hub in New York City for mission-driven organizations. He guides nonprofits to secure not merely offices but strategic homes. With over 10 years of experience managing complex facility portfolios—encompassing more than 200 properties and multifaceted budgets—he leverages AI and cloud platforms to streamline leasing, maintenance, finance, and communications, thereby lowering costs and enhancing tenant satisfaction. Over two decades, Bolton has built high-performing teams, founded a thriving church and nonprofit, and led programs in food security, education, mentorship, and spiritual formation—aligning people, purpose, and process to revitalize communities.
In this interview with Scott Douglas Jacobsen, Bolton explains how the landmark “God Box” provides more than just office space for nonprofits. By offering below-market rents, cultural and spiritual amenities, and community-driven programming, the Center creates a “strategic home” that empowers organizations to focus on their missions. Bolton highlights the integration of AI and cloud tools to streamline leasing, finance, and facilities management, while also emphasizing collaboration between diverse tenants. From accessibility to cybersecurity, Bolton’s vision aligns people, purpose, and process to strengthen the impact of nonprofits.
Scott Douglas Jacobsen: Today, we are here with Robert J. Bolton Jr., President and Executive Director of The Interchurch Center—often called “the God Box”—a Class A community hub for mission-driven organizations in New York City. What problem in New York’s nonprofit office market do you solve better than standard Class A landlords or co-working spaces?
Robert J. Bolton Jr.: A significant challenge is the high cost of leasing office space, which can distract nonprofits from their mission. At The Interchurch Center, we offer below-market office space exclusively to nonprofits, allowing them to focus on their work.
We also offer a range of meaningful amenities—free or low-cost event and conference spaces, a chapel, art gallery programming, and an on-site cafeteria—creating an all-in-one home base that helps tenants focus on serving the community.
Jacobsen: What is an ideal tenant mix—size, sector, faith-based or secular?
Bolton: We host a wide variety of nonprofits, including faith-based, cultural, educational, advocacy, and more. The Interchurch Center began with a faith-based focus in 1960 and today welcomes 501(c)(3) organizations across many mission areas.
Jacobsen: What amenities do tenants use most?
Bolton: Our community and event spaces are in heavy use for meetings, trainings, and galas, and our chapel and cultural programming are distinctive draws. Having these on-site, plus an accessible cafeteria, reduces friction and costs for tenants.
Jacobsen: What role does technology play in reducing costs?
Bolton: We utilize technology to enhance the tenant experience—from security to communication—and reduce costs primarily through careful stewardship and by maintaining a well-occupied building, which helps share operating costs across tenants.
Jacobsen: What kinds of nonprofits are the best fit for The Interchurch Center?
Bolton: Faith-based organizations, certainly, but also cultural, educational, advocacy, and community-focused nonprofits of many kinds. We are a 19-story, ~600,000-square-foot landmark at 475 Riverside Drive, existing to serve a diverse nonprofit community.
That is the foundation of who we are—educational organizations, youth development organizations, justice-focused groups, cultural organizations. If they are doing something positive and serving the community, we want to talk to them.
We believe these organizations can come together—whether serving youth or seniors—to collaborate and work together. For example, a youth group and a senior group could connect, with seniors offering wisdom to the youth and the youth bringing energy to the seniors. There are many ways for our tenants to collaborate as a community.
Jacobsen: How do you measure tenant satisfaction?
Bolton: By doing surveys, talking to tenants, keeping open dialogue, hosting tenant consultation committees and orientations, and simply maintaining consistent communication.
Jacobsen: How do you balance faith-based and secular organizations?
Bolton: By bringing everyone together and celebrating the values we share, not the differences. Sometimes differences enhance our thinking and open us to new conversations and possibilities. However, our focus is on celebrating what we have in common.
Jacobsen: How does a strategic home go beyond simply renting an office?
Bolton: I call The Interchurch Center a strategic home because we want it to be a home away from home for our tenants, especially in today’s hybrid culture, where people may be in the office only two days a week. We want people to want to come to our building. We provide wellness programs, a cafeteria, and spaces for people to gather and connect with others. That sense of belonging is what makes it a strategic home.
Jacobsen: How do AI and cloud tools work in your operations—ticket resolution times, lease cycle hours, efficiency gains?
Bolton: We are still in the early stages of exploring AI, but we are actively pushing it into our operations. We utilize AI to streamline processes, including financial systems, lease management, contract tracking, and communication. I tell my team: let AI do the work so we can focus on the human side, the creative and fun parts.
Jacobsen: What is the community impact that you are most proud of?
Bolton: Helping people help people. We host a wide range of organizations that are dedicated to service, and our role is to support them. We also seek ways to support the community directly. For example, we have a Thanksgiving giveaway planned, and today we are holding a cancer awareness event in celebration of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. We are proud of these direct efforts, but above all, we are proud of the organizations we enable that help others every day.
Jacobsen: What is the tenant journey? Let us say you get an inquiry. How does that move from initial contact to either a pass or acceptance?
Bolton: A typical process begins when someone reaches out—through our website, by phone, or other avenues. We then schedule a tour of our facility. Once they see the building and all we have to offer, they are usually impressed.
The next step is typically signing a letter of intent, followed by board approval on their side. After that, we work out a lease for the appropriate term, sign the agreement, provide an orientation, hand over the keys, take a welcome photo, and officially welcome them to the family.
Jacobsen: What about reputational spillover across faith or mission-driven sectors? If groups have a good—or even average—experience, they share that with others. How does that kind of word-of-mouth impact your growth and outreach?
Bolton: We encourage our tenants, whom I prefer to call our partners, to share their experiences. We have been the “best kept secret” for too long, and now we want others to know about us.
Word of mouth is one of the strongest forms of marketing. Mission-driven organizations want to help other mission-driven organizations. If they find value here—and most of them do—they are eager to share that with others.
Jacobsen: Let us talk about accessibility, for example, multilingual communications. How do you approach these areas?
Bolton: We encourage multilingual communication where necessary, because we serve a very diverse tenant base. Bilingual or multilingual resources help ensure everyone feels included and supported.
Jacobsen: What about chapel use and the risk of proselytizing?
Bolton: We are careful to make the chapel a space of inclusion. For example, just yesterday we hosted the Feast of Creation, where representatives from Muslim, Christian, and other faith communities came together to discuss environmental stewardship. It demonstrated how people of different faiths can unite around shared values, such as caring for our planet.
Jacobsen: You mentioned cybersecurity earlier. Let us move into the infrastructure side—electrification, HVAC, air quality, and cybersecurity. How do you handle those less glamorous but essential areas?
Bolton: Those are different entities within our building, but they all fall under one of our core pillars. Our pillars are integrated facilities management, tenant experience, community engagement, and business continuity.
What you are describing is integrated facilities management—how we care for and steward our facility by providing the best HVAC systems, using AI and other tools for more efficient operations, and maintaining strong cybersecurity. IT, security, and facilities management all work together to create a cohesive environment for our building.
Jacobsen: What has been your favourite event?
Bolton: I will answer that by looking ahead. We are celebrating our 65th anniversary on the 10th of this year. We will be honouring several people, and we want to make it a truly special celebration. That is going to be my favourite event.
Jacobsen: Thank you very much for your time today. It was a pleasure speaking with you, and congratulations on the great work you are doing.
Bolton: Thank you. I appreciate it.
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