A FIVE-MILLION-DOLLAR
PLAN B?
Now to appreciate the
significance of “we don’t need to fight use permits” you need to be aware of
the 2005 capital campaign that led to the purchase of the 50th
street property. This requires a lot of citations that can’t be shortened. Here
they are.
The first excerpt is
from Confessions of a Reformission Rev, published in April 2006.
Our current facility cannot accomodate much growth beyond our
current four Sunday services. Additionally our kids' ministry is bursting at
the seams, our Capstone classes are in desperate need of space, and our
cramped, windowless office space would be perfect if we were a third-world
sweatshop.
So the elders voted to purchase a 43,000-square-foot dumpy
warehouse Jamie found one block away from our current building. When the
project is completed, we will have two buildings only a block apart, each
hosting church services, with 1,300 seats in one location and a projected 1,000
seats in the other. We will be able to grow to more than 10,000 people per
Sunday through multiple services in multiple locations. Each service will have
live worship teams, but I will only be live in some services and in video in
others.
However, in his July 30,
2006 sermon in 1 Corinthians Driscoll said several things about the property
mentioned in Reformission Rev:
There is the building a block away. We purchased it a year ago. It
was heading into foreclosure. We purchased it for under market value. It has
increased in value since that time, and this is just some interior and exterior
shots of the space, and our plan was to turn that into a large room to see
maybe 800 to 1,000 people. And so, what we have instead decided to do, first,
we’re going to keep that building – and it’s been great – ‘cause according to
King 5 television, they had a report that said that 98105, which is this zip
code, is one of the five fastest, increasing valued zip codes in the State of
Washington. Since we bought that building, as it was going to foreclosure, we
already have gained a million dollars in equity in that building. We have no
intention of getting rid of it, but here’s what we do want to do with it. We
want to knock half the building down and just turn it into parking to increase
our parking capacity. Secondly, the other half of the building – we don’t feel
that we have to use right now because of some other things that have come
available that we’re gonna tell you about – but we’re gonna keep it. We’ll rent
it out with the hopes that a tenant will pay most of our mortgage. We can keep
it then, and then if we ever do wanna build on it, we can develop it and do
whatever we want with it but we feel it’s important right now to watch and see
what happens with this neighborhood, particularly what happens to parking, and
then make a determination down the road as to best use.
And the reason that we don’t need to develop it as we had thought
is because of some other things have come available. Among those is Shoreline
and these are some shots from the Shoreline campus and where we are meeting at
Christa Ministries, at Shermer Auditorium. Four hundred seats, plus a full
daycare. It’s amazing kid space. Huge gym for the kids to run around in. Lots
of parking. They’re letting us use that on Sunday and now this fall for
beginning, for midweek programming for nothing. It’s free. We don’t even pay
for janitorial, we don’t even pay for utilities. It is a savings of over
$100,000.00 a year. We can be there for two more years. It’s a savings of 200
plus thousand dollars. We love Christa. We’re very, very grateful for their kindness
to us. Eventually, we will need to purchase a permanent site for our Shoreline.
We’ll need to get them a permanent purchase campus, ‘cause we can only be there
for two years. I mean, wouldn’t it be great if somebody let you how the house
for two years for free? I mean that’s a very kind gift, so we are actively
looking for another place to buy….
Reformission Rev got published in April 2006 and by July 2006 the plan for the 50th
street property looks pretty different.
It is in the contrast between the announced plan in Driscoll’s book and
the realities on the literal ground that we see why acquiring what is now Mars
Hill West Seattle became a priority. My
best guess is that it was this substantial change in announced plans that Jamie
Munson referred to when answering the question asked below.
Page 72/145 from Mars Hill: A miracle of Jesus
November 9, 2007
Section: Stewardship
Answers submitted by Pastor Jamie Munson
Q: What is the status and future plans for the property M.H. owns
just north of the Ballard campus?
...
A:
We purchased the building on 50th with the intention of performing
a massive renovation, and by connecting it with our Leary building, to create a
large campus in the middle of the city. Since the 50th building dedication, our
renovation plans were delayed by our attempt to obtain a change of use permit. During the permitting delay we were gifted
a building in West Seattle and undertook renovating and opening that building
as our next campus. [emphasis added]
At the time of these changes we communicated this to the members of the
church openly and honestly as we wanted to be faithful to the stewardship and
generosity of the body.
Also, each quarter a letter is sent to members, along with their
donor statement, urging faithful stewardship and giving updates to vision and
building strategies. In addition, Pastor Mark wrote a lengthy letter that was
sent to members electronically, and handed out at all campuses explaining the
shift to a multi-campus church before the West Seattle campus opened. Due to the restrictions and expense of building
a single large building in our city our focus has shifted from one large campus
to becoming a multi-site church of smaller campuses. Your elders feel this will enable a more
effective and cost-efficient spread of the Gospel throughout Seattle and beyond. It will still take capital campaigns and the
purchasing of facilities but allows us to spread and grow more quickly as Jesus
leads.
We are leasing part of the 50th building to generate some revenue.
We are also performing a minor renovation of portions of the building to
alleviate our current office and production space needs. This will eliminate the need for leasing
office space for our use. In addition
the property provides some much needed parking relief for our Ballard campus
and also needs such as storage. An
average church of our size functions with about 4 times as much square footage
as we do with our Ballard campus.
Storage, meeting rooms, office space and parking are greatly needed and
this property serves those with purposes in the mean time. Future development
options are being considered as well but there are no firm plans for
these. This is further complicated as
the city is considering further zoning changes and restrictions in industrial
areas of the city. Until this
legislation is decided it hangs property owners up as the future possibilities
of the property are unclear. We are
hanging on to the property and using it to the fullest extent possible in the
mean time.
In other words, we could
take Munson’s reply to explain that Mars Hill elders purchased property in 2005
without adequately investigating zoning and land use permits beforehand. They
bought what is now the 50th street property, and have been making
the best of it while they were looking to purchase or acquire other property. The
property was valuable enough that selling it could be done without a rush and
the property maximized while more suitable options were considered. As we can
see from Driscoll’s July 2006 sermon other options presented themselves quickly
enough.
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