Members of Beach Baptist will be voting this Sunday to sell a piece of their property for $4 million to a developer. If the land is sold Beach Baptist would use the proceeds from the sale to build a new church.
Last week the Beach Baptist advisory council voted unanimously to recommended that church members cast their vote on a purchase sales agreement for 2 acres (closest to Estero Boulevard) of the church property. The May 19th vote will include approval to start the build process for a new church building.
Church members can vote in person or by email on Sunday the 19th. Email votes will close at 6:00pm that night.
It was about a year ago that Beach Baptist held an open house to view plans to redevelop the 3.5 acres of land at 130 Connecticut street. The plan included an 8-story condo tower with a parking deck, 36 workforce housing apartments, and a church that seats 500. Because of the size of that building, the project was not well received by the community.
Beach Baptist Pastor Shawn Critser says the proposed buyer is the same developer who pitched the 8-story building last year, S.J. Collins. Aaron Coe, founder of Future City Now, an organization that helps churches, is sort of the middle-man between the developer and the church. He’s also a childhood friend of Pastor Critser. He told Beach Talk Radio a few months back that, ” Our plan, in theory, will be greatly reduced in scope from what we previewed with the community. However, nothing has been drawn yet.”
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