Christ Church expands footprint

When church parishioners show up on Sundays for church and leave frustrated after circling the parking lot and realizing there’s nowhere to park, that’s a problem.

For Christ Church of Longboat Key, Presbyterian, that problem convinced its congregation to find available parking spots as soon as possible by purchasing a neighboring commercial office building to the south.

The Rev. Norman Pritchard told the Longboat Observer Monday approximately 100 members in attendance at Sunday’s church service unanimously approved a $1.1 million purchase of the former Wedebrock Real Estate Company office at 6350 Gulf of Mexico Drive from Samuel and Hilda Hood of Canada.

The building currently houses Longboat Key Financial & Insurance Group, RJV Hospitality Services, Longboat Title Services, Attorney D. Turner Matthews and RVA Resort Vacations.

The commercial office building sits on 1.3 acres.

“It’s all about the parking spaces,” Pritchard said.  “It’s our primary reason for the purchase.”

The church and its offices, which sit at 6400 Gulf of Mexico Drive, has 102 parking spots on its site.

“It’s just not enough parking spaces for a seasonal congregation that sees attendance rise in season,” Pritchard said.  “I’ve heard stories of parishioners arriving to discover there’s no where to park, so they drive home. That’s not good, so we’re fixing it.”

The church already had an agreement in place to use 20 parking spaces on the site on the north side of the building this season. And on Easter Sunday, the church got permission to use the entire site for parking.

“We managed to get 50 cars on the site on Easter,” Pritchard said. “That’s a big help.”

The church plans to honor a variety of leases that exist for current tenants before it transitions the 8,476 square feet of office space into a future office and meeting facility space for members.

“The building also provides storage opportunities,” Pritchard said. “But that’s for future consideration and development down the line.”

The church made an initial exploratory offer to buy the property, which wasn’t for sale, five weeks ago.

“It all happened so fast,” Pritchard said.

Christ Church, though, is known for moving fast.

A 10-year-old congregation that started meeting in the Mediterranean Plaza in 2006, it only took parishioners a year to begin serious discussions about building a worship center.

By 2009, almost 97% of the congregation raised more than $4.5 million toward a new building as part of its Just Imagine fundraising campaign and a groundbreaking for the 278-seat church was held in August 2010.

To purchase the office building, the congregation started its Just Imagine II fundraising campaign, which has a goal of raising $2.5 million over a three-year period to acquire more parking through the property purchase and pay off the $1.75 million debt remaining on the church construction. Pritchard said retiring the church building debt will allow the church to free up an additional $200,000 annually for church mission and outreach purposes.

“We have already raised one-third of our goal,” said Christ Church member and fundraising calling committee member John Wild.

Pritchard, the former pastor at Kirk in the Hills in Bloomfield, Mich., said it’s unheard of for a 10-year-old congregation to accomplish what Christ Church has done in 10 years.

“I can’t believe how vigorous and active the congregation is,” Pritchard said. “It’s really quite amazing,”

Christ Church member John Dixon said the congregation is known for acting when the time is right.

“Parking was a serious problem because we didn’t want people leaving without being able to worship, so we stepped up and fixed it,” Dixon said. 

Contact Kurt Schultheis at [email protected].