A 61-unit affordable housing development is in the works for Portland’s Buckman neighborhood. is developing the project, called Francis + Clare Place, with partner Caritas Housing. The site is at 1131 S.E. Oak St.

will have 51 studios and 10 one-bedroom apartments. The complex will serve people who have experienced chronic homelessness and have complex physical and/or behavioral health challenges. Rents for the permanent supportive housing units will be subsidized by project-based vouchers.

Holst Architecture designed the project for Catholic Charities of Oregon/Caritas Housing. O’Neill/Walsh Community Builders will be the general contractor. The development team also includes development consultant Edlen & Co., and service providers Native American Rehabilitation Association and AfroVillage.

“Francis + Clare Place is an inspiring example of partnership between a local parish, affordable housing developers, nonprofit service providers, and the city of Portland to provide deeply affordable homes and robust services, having meaningful social impact in the Central Eastside District,” project principal Dave Otte stated in an email. “Holst is honored to have a part in creating this special place that will help so many of our neighbors in need that are experiencing housing insecurity.”

The location offers access to workforce training opportunities, grocery stores and convenience stores, bike routes, and frequent-service bus lines, Holst Architecture stated.

The building’s site is a small portion of the larger St. Francis of Assisi Catholic Church property. The L-shaped building will sit north of at the corner of Southeast 11th Avenue and Oak Street. The site mirrors the shape of the building, which will be set back from the property line at the north and inside of the ‘L.’ That will allow pedestrians to access residential amenities and a loading space at the northwest corner, according to Otte.

Amenities will include a quiet room for relaxation, a community space that will double as a classroom, a laundry lounge and on-site offices for property management and supportive services.

The total project cost is approximately $21.6 million. Slightly more than $7.8 million of that amount is being covered by Portland housing bond funding, according to Catholic Charities of Oregon.

Construction is set to begin in late June and expected to finish in 13 months.

On the Boards is a 91��Ƶ feature offering a look at projects in Oregon and Southwest Washington being tackled by local architecture firms. To have your firm’s projects considered, contact the 91��Ƶ at 503-802-7221 or newsroom@djcOregon.com.

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By Sarah Ellis

The State

COLUMBIA, S.C. (AP) — Columbia’s old Rosewood Baptist Church may never not look like a church.

This fall, when residents move into new apartments inside the half-century-old sanctuary, they’ll set their dining tables beneath 40-foot arched windows once filled by colorful stained glass. Their decor will be flanked by the building’s dark oak panels; some will have the white-painted cinder-block walls of former Sunday school classrooms. Someone’s living room will sit roughly in the footprint of the former baptismal pool.

And one unique apartment will boast a 20-foot-plus-tall stained-glass mosaic of Jesus Christ, with arms and hands outstretched. (A construction worker on site cheekily referenced the apartment as “the Jesus Suite.”)

Above it all still will tower the unmissable steeple.

“During the design, one of the first things we talked about was the steeple,” said Frank Cason, whose Columbia development group is undertaking the church’s transformation, along with Garvin Design Group architects and Boyer Construction, at the corner of Sloan Street and Rosewood Drive. “I was … leaning toward, should we take that off? And our architect said, ‘This is always going to be a church. It’s always going to read as a church. Why would you take that off? It’s not going to make it less of a church.’”

The team kept the steeple.

The apartments, dubbed 5th and Sloan, are shaping up as a carefully thought-out blend of old and new; even the name of the under-construction complex is an ode to Rosewood Drive’s historic name: 5th Avenue.

The apartments also represent, possibly for the first time in Columbia, the transformation of a traditional church sanctuary into something besides a church. It’s happened elsewhere – the current Church and Union restaurant in downtown Charleston, for instance, and in places usually farther outside the Bible Belt. But it’s still a novel concept in a region traditionally known for a proliferation of churches on every corner, figuratively (and sometimes literally) speaking.

In several ways, the church-to-apartments transformation represents a bridge between the past and the future of this spot in Columbia. And it’s still a nod to a church community that hasn’t disappeared but has relocated farther down the Rosewood corridor in a smaller space, as the congregation has shrunk in recent years.

Cason jumped at the opportunity to undertake the project, almost as soon as the church building hit the market in 2019. He believed the structure could be saved and repurposed. Some people in the community thought it should be turned into a brewery, while others couldn’t believe Cason would even consider touching the sanctuary, the developer said.

Since work began at the site in October 2021, it’s been almost a daily task to decide what details can and should be preserved as construction progresses, Cason said.

“The big challenge is … it’s a new use for the structure, while maintaining the fact that there was a church, and we don’t want to hide that, and we don’t want to lose that,” he said. “That’s part of the charm.”

Columbia as a city places a high value on historic preservation. And while the Rosewood church building itself does not have a historic designation, the structure and the congregation that once filled it have “significance” to the surrounding community, Cason said.

“It can be cheaper to tear things down and start from scratch,” he acknowledged. “There’s a place to tear down, and there’s a place for keeping. Just because a building is old doesn’t mean it should be kept, and just because it would be easier to tear down doesn’t mean it should happen like that. … This is the way we want historic properties to be, where you can blend them in with new; you can add to them.”

The 49 apartments at 5th and Sloan are expected to open to residents in October. A mix of one- and two-bedroom units, some of them two stories tall, will be spread across the former sanctuary, classroom building and a newly constructed building between them. The complex will include a fitness center, a lounge for residents and an outdoor courtyard, and several apartments will have outdoor balconies. Rents will range from $1,425 to $2,400.

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Weighing whether to sell a church is more than a financial decision.

“That’s part of the gut-level stuff,” David Brauer-Rieke, bishop of the Oregon Synod, said of the process. “But that comes in conflict with our proclamation of death and resurrection – things die and they come back in a different form. So we fight those tensions in what we believe faith-wise and what we experience in our own guts. It’s hard.”

Recently, the decided to gift its 84-year-old building on Northeast Cesar E. Chavez Boulevard to the synod so it could sell it. Over a number of years, Bethlehem’s congregation decreased from several hundred to approximately 50; the church could no longer afford the $3,000 in monthly maintenance fees for the 15,000-square-foot facility.

Brauer-Rieke said congregations across the nation are facing the same problem.

The predicts that 40 percent of the mainline churches that were present in America in the mid-1990s will be forced to shut their doors by 2020 because of a lack of viability.

According to the Regional Multiple Listing Service, nine churches in the Portland-metro area are for sale. The trouble is that few options exist for the single-use buildings.

“These buildings are really having a hard time finding a niche,” said Steve Hagan, a senior adviser with . “Buyers don’t know what the heck to do with them. I mean you can tear them down, but you’re paying a premium for buying a building that you’re just going to blow up essentially.”

Hagan added that parishioners often value their buildings for much more than what buyers are willing to pay. He said he has seen three deals fall through in the past 12 months because of that divide. The problem is zoning.

Mike Hayakawa, a supervising planner with Portland’s Bureau of Development Services, said churches are zoned for residential neighborhoods with a conditional-use permit. So, prospective church building buyers interested in a commercial, retail, office or institutional use would have to apply for a zoning change.

“It’s very expensive, it’s very time-consuming and the City Council has adopted criteria that really make you address all the impacts,” Hayakawa said. “It’s not easy and it’s not meant to be easy. Well-informed people do not take map amendments lightly. They understand they can roll the dice, go through the whole process and months later be back at square one.”

Meanwhile, national studies reveal that church attendance is declining. According to a 2011 report by the Barna Group, a church-focused research organization, approximately 46 percent of people in western states are unchurched. That’s a 17 percent increase from 1991.

And according to RealtyTrac, the number of foreclosures filed on church properties in the U.S. increased from 12 in 2008 to 143 in the first half of 2012. Additionally, according to CoStar, while only three church foreclosure sales occurred in 2006, 117 took place in 2010, 105 in 2011 and 36 so far this year.

Brauer-Rieke said churches aren’t connecting well with younger generations.

“Passions, particularly in the Northwest, revolve around Earth care and green issues and environmental (issues), which is not exactly Jesus language,” he said. “But they may be issues you’re concerned with … conversations revolving around work, jobs (and) how we use money – what it means to live with this unbelievable load of debt and be unemployed and that sort of stuff. And is that a spiritual question? Well, yeah.”

Brauer-Rieke is hoping to engage in more of those conversations, but in the meantime churches are collecting less money from fewer attendees.

“From a strictly real estate perspective, it means for many churches there are few people who are sitting in those pews every Sunday, and when they’re not sitting in the pews, the way they give tends to be different,” said Jan Wierima, executive assistant for the Oregon Synod. “It’s not your grandmother’s collection plate.”

Sometimes, a creative property solution is required.

Courtney McHill is a United Methodist pastor for the , a co-op that combines Methodist and Lutheran congregations under one roof.

The arrangement started about six years ago as a way for one pastor to fill in for another when that person was on a mission. But it has since evolved into a kind of full-service community center. In addition to being used for three different mass schedules (one Methodist, one Lutheran and one mixed) the building accommodates 24 Alcoholics Anonymous meetings and local Boy Scout troop gatherings. Free coffee is offered all day, and free breakfast is served on Saturdays.

McHill said it works great.

“Why would we funnel more funds into all these different buildings when that’s not our mission,” she said. “It’s to be out in the world with people.”

Brauer-Rieke said the Bethlehem congregation ultimately arrived at the same conclusion. The group now travels and “nests” with other Portland-area churches; he said many are relieved that there are no more worries about paying monthly bills.

But concerns did arise. When the idea of selling the church was broached, one woman in her early 70s asked him, “Where will my funeral be?”

A big turning point came about two weeks after the congregation left the building and a woman in her 90s – one of the group’s most long-standing parishioners – died. An intimate service was held at the Gateway Little Chapel of the Chimes.

The congregation’s pastor, Solveig Nilsen-Goodin, said the experience helped people realize that it wasn’t the building that mattered most, but rather how the life was celebrated. Brauer-Rieke said selling a church building is still hard.

“All of us want ties to the ancestors. We want our history … That’s part of why we’re so resistant to this stuff,” Brauer-Rieke said. “Because people at some gut level know, boy, if we lose this, it’s gone forever.”

That said, Brauer-Rieke said more Portland-area churches likely will go up for sale. Meanwhile, brokers will continue to seek buyers.

“Their building for them is an important part of their lives and to let it go for land value just sort of rubs against them the wrong way,” Hagan said. “But unless you’re McMenamins and going to have the temple bar or something, I mean who’s going to use it with the stained glass? It’s not going to happen.”

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An old Northeast Portland church building is awaiting a new congregation or commercial enterprise.

The former Bethlehem Lutheran Church at 1244 N.E. Cesar E. Chavez Blvd. is for sale; it’s listed for $1.05 million. The large, 15,000-square-foot building was built in 1928 and has numerous amenities such as classrooms, offices, a kitchen, 59 on-site parking stalls and a sanctuary with a balcony. The unmistakable facade also features tall, classic stained glass windows.

Jan Wierima, executive assistant to the bishop for the , said the previous congregation chose to gift the building to the synod following a steep decrease in the size of its congregation. The group once had hundreds of members, but today it has fewer than 50, and Wierima said maintaining the building was no longer financially feasible.

“This has happened, not just across the Lutheran faith, but it’s happening across the board,” she said. “And so what we’re doing is we are engaging our leadership (to make) very thoughtful discernment about how to help congregations be adaptive and stay to the core of what they believe they’re called to do. And sometimes that means you can’t afford the building anymore. Sometimes it means, ‘We are choosing to center our mission in a different way.’ And that’s a pretty courageous thing.”

Ryan O’Leary, a broker who is listing the property for Oregon Synod said its zoning would let another congregation acquire the property and move in easily. Occupancy also could be smooth for businesses such as fraternal organizations and day care companies.

The three-story building sits on 0.83 acres of land near Interstate 84, TriMet bus routes and a MAX light-rail station. The building also is within walking distance of the Northeast Hollywood retail corridor, Laurelhurst (K-8) School, Providence Health and a 24 Hour Fitness.

O’Leary said a creative owner could convert the big building into a residential structure. One could likely divide up the structure into about seven units without triggering complicated permitting reviews.

Despite being on the market for a short time, the building already has drawn several inquiries, O’Leary said.

“We have had some interest from a few developers and we’ve also had some interest from a few different organizations that would continue to worship out of it with a little rehab,” he said. “At this point we’re still early in the marketing process.”

Block by Block is a weekly look at commercial real estate around Portland. Send suggestions for properties to BlockxBlock@djcOregon.com.

The post Church building for sale in Northeast Portland appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Let it be written: A former church in the St. Johns neighborhood of North Portland is up for sale.

The building at 9008 N. Smith St. most recently served as a place of worship for the Calvary Missionary Baptist Church. Michelle Lamb, a representative for the family limited liability company that purchased the property in 2008, said the two-story, 6,754-square-foot building was constructed as a single-family home in 1940, and that it has housed several different congregations over the years.

Lamb said the group first worked out a deal to sell the property to the Baptist church, but that deal fell through when it decided to merge with New Hope Missionary Baptist Church in North Portland. She said that although appraisers have valued the building at $510,000, the LLC is listing it for $479,000. She said a lease agreement would be possible.

“The building is really an open space so you could use it for a lot of different things,” Lamb said.

She said the building would suit a yoga studio, a private school or a community center, and noted that many like-minded groups had expressed interest.

Lamb said the family LLC last year spent between $50,000 and $75,000 updating the building with an entirely new stucco exterior, refurbished hardwood floors, new interior paint and a completely remodeled basement with a full kitchen. She said the improvements have brought new life to the space.

“We’ve had some people that came in and thought the floors were wet because of the way the sun was reflecting off of them,” she said.

The property also includes a 1,700-square-foot lot across the street that can be used for parking, Lamb said.

Another potential benefit of the property is that because it is already zoned to accommodate a church, day care is an allowable use, said John McClay of .

“It’s a perfect day care center – absolutely perfect,” he said.

McClay said other educational uses could be approved as well, but added that interested buyers should run ideas by the city before moving forward because an “allowable” use is not a “guaranteed” use.

“You still have to go to the powers that be and have them sprinkle holy water on it – pardon the pun – and have them approve it,” he said.

Block by Block is a weekly look at commercial real estate around Portland. Send suggestions for properties to BlockxBlock@djcOregon.com.

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Mauro Cettina knows that budgets are tight for most Washington County businesses, but he doesn’t mind calling to ask for their help.

Cettina, the facilities manager at in Tualatin, is helping coordinate a group of contractors volunteering their time and materials to help the region’s homeless population. He has reached out to local businesses and Rolling Hills congregants, seeking donations of any size.

“Some people don’t like to ask; I do,” he said. “Sometimes I pray a little bit before I push that last digit in the phone number … but everyone wants to give a little.”

Since 2008, Rolling Hills has provided shelter from the elements to people who would otherwise be on the streets. Through Washington County’s Severe Weather Shelter program, community organizations are permitted to provide temporary shelter services when temperatures either drop below freezing or climb above 98 degrees Fahrenheit.

But church organizers were still finding gaps in the services provided. Despite a small budget and some permitting struggles, Rolling Hills has undertaken what some people say is the first construction project to expand services begun in the Severe Weather Shelter program.

“Sometimes we’re hesitant to ask people for their time and materials because we don’t want to burden anyone when the economy is so tough,” said Cettina, who has coordinated the construction project at the church since it began last summer.

“But when it’s a worthy cause like this, people seem to really want to help, whether it’s because they want to be a part of the community or to ease their conscience or for whatever reason,” he said. “Everyone has been so happy to help; I think they just appreciate being thought of.”

In the final week of January 2011, 1,356 homeless individuals were counted in Washington County, according to Pat Rogers, manager of housing and homeless services at Community Action, a nonprofit organization. If Rolling Hills is able to finalize all of its permits, the church will be allowed to provide shelter and services to homeless people even when local officials have not officially declared a severe weather emergency.

The existing basement at Rolling Hills was a large, unfinished space with a concrete floor and no amenities. With donations of time, money and services, though, the space will soon hold beds for more than a dozen people in need.

�ʴǰ��ٱ����Ի�’s is donating $3,000 worth of labor and parts to install an HVAC system, according to Cettina, and the company installing exit signs and other fire safety equipment is donating 25 percent of its work on the shelter.

Ron Kief, owner of CPS Construction and a member of the congregation at Rolling Hills, has volunteered his time and brought in 10 workers to assist the remodel.

“We helped get things off the ground,” Kief said. “And I got a bunch of guys off my team lined up for some good construction experience.”

The next step in the basement is underground plumbing and electrical work, but because volunteers are limited to their after-work hours, progress has been slow.

The project has also faced some challenges in the permitting process, according to Faith Carter, Rolling Hill’s community global outreach coordinator.

Six faith-based organizations, including Rolling Hills, operate severe weather shelters through Washington County’s program. But Rolling Hills is technically within Clackamas County’s purview, which has created hassles as the church seeks to expand its services to a homeless population coming largely from Tualatin.

“I’ve wondered if everything would have gone faster if we were located in Washington County,” Carter said.

The church has worked closely with Tualatin city officials and the police department, according to Carter, but has not yet built similar connections in Clackamas County.

Nevertheless, the construction process continues to progress and volunteers leading the effort have high hopes for the expanded facility.

“People think that West Linn and Tualatin have a good income, but a lot of people need help with this economy,” Cettina said. “The bottom line is that once we get it built, this will be a community-oriented space.”

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A building that formerly housed a church in the Alberta Arts District of Northeast Portland is being pegged for use as a community center.

The building, at 5131 N.E. 23rd Ave., was the longtime home of the International Fellowship Family church. The building was deeded to the lender, Evangelical Christian Credit Union, in 2005, and the church now operates at 4401 N.E. 122nd Ave. The 7,388-square-foot building is for sale at an asking price of $495,000.

The building would be a good candidate for a community center, according to broker Sara Daley, because zoning allows for educational, event, community or religious uses through the conditional use permit process.

“It’s a little bit of a head-scratcher, only because it’s in a residential zone,” Daley said. “But it’s been priced pretty aggressively to accommodate for the fact that if it has a different use than a church it will have to go through a conditional use process.”

Of course, successful navigation of the conditional use process would require the buyer’s plans to dovetail with residents’ desire for the building.

“That’s why it would be a perfect building for a community center or arts use,” Daley said. “In order to achieve that, whoever goes in there is going to need to have the support from the district because to go through the conditional use process, you need to have neighborhood approval.”

The building was constructed as a Masonic lodge in 1924. It has a large sanctuary with high ceilings and a wraparound balcony, which includes offices, classrooms, storage and restrooms. Additional fellowship space, a kitchen and restrooms are on the ground floor.

For details on purchasing this property, contact Daley at 503-721-2726 or sdaley@kiddermathews.com.��

Block by Block is a weekly look at commercial real estate around Portland. Send suggestions for properties to BlockxBlock@djcOregon.com.

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is performing a tenant improvement on River West Church in Lake Oswego.�� It is receiving seismic upgrades, administrative offices and classrooms, and new entrances, carpets and paint.�� Large rooms are being divided into smaller spaces for work and storage, and a room that houses a day care program has been expanded with the removal of accordion-style dividers.

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A six-year search for a new home for a private, Lake Oswego-based high school culminated in an agreement that dovetails with the vision of a metro-area church.

Westside Christian High School recently signed a purchase agreement for the City Bible Church campus in Tigard. A leaseback arrangement will let both the high school and church operate out of the building. Each group is excited about the partnership; however, financial challenges lie ahead.

“We are fundraising in a difficult economic environment,” said Andy Sears, Westside Christian’s principal. “But we are seeing people in our community and beyond that are interested and excited about the project.”

The planned budget for purchasing the property, remodeling the existing building and adding to the campus is approximately $15 million, although Sears said the school is in the early stages of its capital campaign and planning process.

A weak economy may make fundraising difficult, but it also can be a boon for project owners, according to Brent Parry, principal in charge for , the general contractor for the remodel and addition.

“It’s a great time to be building because you can take advantage of very good climate for pricing,” Parry said. “Most nonprofits are really challenged with fundraising right now, though – it takes some value decisions and creative funding.”

Westside Christian administrators had considered building a new school on a greenfield, or on a former agricultural site in Tigard, but they jumped on the opportunity to buy the City Bible Church campus in part because the leaseback agreement will provide an immediate revenue stream.

“It is just a good, symbiotic relationship where we have the ability to leverage an asset together,” Sears said.

The church will use the space primarily on weekends and the school will use it during the week, so the property will be put to better use, according to Sears.

Bremik Construction will add classrooms for Westside’s 250 students, along with a media space, a gymnasium, new athletic fields, and locker and fitness facilities. The building originally was a General Motors training facility with common restrooms, classrooms and a cafeteria, so the layout also works well as a school, according to Parry. The facility will receive a seismic upgrade and a general remodel.

“We spent months talking and came up with a deal that works really well for both of us,” said Robert Jameson, a church administrator. “We are like-minded organizations, though, so we have similar visions and missions to accomplish.”

Until they found each other, each group struggled to find a compatible partner.

“It’s been a challenge to find a site that is the size and location that would work, given our demographic,” Sears said. “There aren’t a lot of large, affordable parcels of land in that region.”

City Bible Church since 2003 had tried to sell 3.5 acres of land; the building itself was not on the market initially. So when Westside Christian expressed interest not only in the land, but in purchasing and improving the entire church property, Jameson said it seemed like the perfect opportunity to reduce the church’s debt, lower its operating costs and improve its services all at once.

One downside for City Bible Church is that construction is expected to last about eight months, from February until September, and could disrupt activities.

“There will be challenges we’ll have to work through during the construction period,” Jameson said. “But this partnership allows us to grow at that location, which is good because we’ve been growing since we moved there.”

And even though the school is still working to raise money for this project, it has plans for a new auditorium in the future.

“We have council and volunteer leadership giving us a high level of confidence going forward,” Sears said.

The post High school, church strike purchase agreement appeared first on Daily Journal of Commerce.

Burnside Living, a 132-unit senior living community, is being developed by the Foursquare Foundation of Los Angeles. The project is part of a move by the church to develop some of its underused property into senior housing. has worked with the church before, and is looking forward to the $29 million Portland project, principal Manny Gonzalez said.

“Architecture in Portland has a very contemporary feel,” he said. That suits senior housing, because “active adults don’t want to move into the same kind of house their grandmother moved into. There’s a tendency to get away from traditional toward the more contemporary.”

The building’s design is indeed contemporary – the large, multi-use space will have rooftop gardens, a courtyard and lots of daylighting, Gonzalez said.

One of the design challenges has been to create a building that relates to a busy commercial street – Burnside – on one side, and to a residential street – Ankeny – on the other. To respect that transition, KTGY Group has designed the building to be six stories along Burnside and decrease to four stories near the homes.

“The building is designed to create an urban edge on one side and respect neighborhood massing on the other,” Gonzalez said.

Presently, the site is a parking lot for a nearby Foursquare church building. Some of that parking will be maintained in an underground lot, but on-site parking will be established for residents and street parking will accommodate planned ground-floor retail. Gonzalez believes a café or hair salon, in particular, would appeal to Burnside Living residents.

So far, the only other firm signed on to the project is KPFF Consulting Engineers, but Gonzalez said that KTGY Group will seek more local consultants and a local general contractor. KTGY Group plans to begin construction in spring 2012 and complete the project within 18 months.

Other design team members at KTGY Group include Laurel Gillette, studio director; Alan Scales, studio director and project designer; and Keith McCloskey, project manager.��

“On the Boards” is a weekly feature that spotlights local firms’ best design work. Submissions from architectural and engineering firms are encouraged. Please email ontheboards@djcorprod.wpengine.com or call 503-802-7240.

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