For ten (10) years, Journey operated in a small commercial retail strip center comprising 11,200 SF with only 230 seats for adults and insufficient space for children. Journey could not grow. For six (6) years, Developco diligently chased several existing buildings to purchase knowing that the project budget could not afford a newly constructed church building. But God had a different plan. A 12.7-acre undeveloped land site in Castle Rock, entitled for church use, was identified and a new 14,100 SF church building was constructed!
As Journey’s Owner’s Representative, Developco led this $6.3 million Phase 1 ground-up development project including financial feasibility, site acquisition brokerage, municipal entitlements, financing (Free Methodist Foundation), project management (design, engineering, construction oversight), outfitting and move management.
The project hard costs were $4.8 million but included extraordinarily high site development costs because the site was severely sloping and did not have public wet utilities (water and sewer). Since there were no fire hydrants, approval required constructing a 40,000-gallon underground water storage tank sufficient to fight a fire upon the property. Constructing took eight months and the new building opened in July, 2017.
“The path we traveled to obtain a larger church building took many twists and turns. After literally years of searching for property, God showed us an undeveloped land site outside our target area. It was difficult to obtain approval and to develop the site, but CFS was there every step of the way encouraging and leading from strategic thinking through construction. We are grateful for CFS’s partnership and strongly recommend CFS to any church seeking to grow into a larger building.”
Scotty Priest, Lead Pastor