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Church chooses multiuse path

Westside services will be in a "sanctinasium" that can convert to a banquet hall or gym. Next door, people might shop or sup.

By LORRI HELFAND
Published December 13, 2005

LARGO - With a debt close to a million dollars and just 150 active members, Westside Church of the Nazarene was on the lookout for smaller digs.

But its pastor, the Rev. Tim Riggs, had a better idea: Turn the church's thriving school on the same site into a multipurpose facility and sell half of its 4-acre property to retail developers.

"We'll downsize to get more in line with what our attendance is," he said. "We'll do the same ministries with less building and make it a lot more efficient."

The congregation voted to sell about 2 acres on the north side of the property to CDE LLC, a Tampa development company. The current 11,000-square-foot sanctuary would be razed to make way for a 17,000-square-foot shopping center called Westside Centre.

Clark East, managing partner of CDE, estimated construction costs at about $1.6-million. Starbucks, Washington Mutual and Quiznos Sub are completing leases at the center, which will have two to five additional storefronts, East said.

A final Largo City Commission vote on approval of a land use change for the commercial center is scheduled for Dec. 20. . East said he hopes to break ground by March or April and that shops could open by late next year.

The church and the developer have been working closely to make sure the mix of tenants and the ambience of the new center complement the church.

The congregation, which began about 35 years ago, purchased the church on the southeast corner of 137th Street and Walsingham Road for about $1.1-million in 1997. Riggs, 50, who has headed the church for four years, turned to the McKnight Group, an architectural firm that specializes in church design, to take the church into its next transformation.

He became familiar with the firm's designs in Ohio, where he worked as a pastor for several years. There he served with Homer McKnight, the CEO of the McKnight Group, on a district advisory board for the Church of the Nazarene.

To accommodate its congregation, Westside Church of the Nazarene plans to spend about $874,000 to remodel its 15,000 square-foot Westside Christian School complex and expand the structure by 5,100 square feet. The school serves about 120 students in kindergarten through 12th grade.

Riggs said he plans to close on the sale of the 2 acres at the end of February. He said he couldn't disclose the selling price, but that the church would still have to orchestrate a capital campaign to cover remodeling costs. Riggs hopes to break ground on the project in June and complete construction within six months.

The current two-story corrugated metal building, which resembles a large barn, would be finished with contemporary materials that look like stucco, stone or brick, McKnight said. In addition to the school, the facility would also house a children's chapel, a toddler area, a kitchen to warm catered meals, and a 6,052-square-foot multi-ministry area that could serve as a sanctuary, banquet hall or gymnasium. Up to 600 chairs could be moved in and out of the area each week, depending on activities.

Riggs and some of his flock call the future structure a "sanctinasium," a term coined for places of sanctification that also serve as gymnasiums.

McKnight said the term oversimplifies the concept because the facilities host services, dinners, receptions, conferences, or whatever else churches need to serve the public.

"That's the key. The building becomes a tool for ministry and a tool to use, rather than a place to come just on Sunday or a midweek service," McKnight said.

Such facilities are gaining popularity since he developed the concept about 20 years ago, he said.

"Now, it's a preferred type of church building. We do about 50 or so a year and about 80 percent are this type of building," McKnight said.

McKnight said few of his projects involve churches that are trying to downsize. Most of his work is building church complexes for new or budding congregations.

"Typically, a church will choose to build a building to use seven days a week for their ministry, while they're growing," McKnight said.

But Riggs is confident the combination of a new multipurpose facility and the nearby retail center will help his congregation flourish.

"Some people have phobias of going to church, but they don't have a phobia of going to a sanctinasium," Riggs said.

--Lorri Helfand can be reached at 445-4155 or at lorri@sptimes.com

[Last modified December 13, 2005, 01:31:15]