Print

Email story

Comment

Email editor

Pinellas Park marketing availability of old church

The city will send out information to let prospective tenants know the property is available to rent for $12,500 a month.

By ANNE LINDBERG
Published April 16, 2006

The moves comes after the city received several phone calls asking about the possibility of leasing the two buildings at 4981 78th Ave. N, the former Pinellas Park Baptist Temple.

Most of the inquiries came from other churches, said Chuck Webber, the city economic development specialist in charge of leasing the property.

"I don't know how anybody other than a school would completely utilize that property," Webber said Thursday.

To get the property, the successful tenant would have to pay at least $12,500 a month in rent for a five-year lease, he said. That's about 34 cents a square foot per month for the 25,068-square-foot, two-story classroom building and the 11,340-square-foot former sanctuary.

The minimum monthly price was set after city officials checked around and found what other church schools were paying for rent. It's also what the former Pinellas Park Baptist Temple was paying the city before its new sanctuary was ready on U.S. 19 N at the old Joyland site.

"We were pretty much the best deal in town per square foot," Webber said.

Although the minimum price seems cheap, Webber said it cannot be compared to rents for commercial property because the type of space is so specialized.

Officials are preparing information to send out to county churches and other agencies to let them know the property is available.

It's unlikely, Webber said, that the city would rent one of the buildings and not the other, much to the disappointment of city spokesman Tim Caddell. Caddell, who also is in charge of city festivals and other such activities, said he would like to use the former sanctuary and its stage as a headquarters for community theater.

"I know Tim is lusting after that building," Webber said.

But Caddell should not lose all hope, he said, because it is unclear what proposals might come back. One group already has asked to rent just one floor of the former classroom building.

"Nothing is impossible at this point," Webber said. "Who knows what kind of response we'll get ... if any."

A split council voted in 2003 to buy the property, which adjoins City Hall, from the Pinellas Park Baptist Temple. The church had used it for a school and as a place of worship.

Patricia Bailey-Snook, Rick Butler and Ed Taylor were in favor of the deal, but Sandy Bradbury abstained, saying she was not "comfortable" with the deal. Mayor Bill Mischler was not present at the meeting.

The city sold $6-million in bonds to get the property - half for the building and half for renovations.

As part of the deal, Pinellas Park Baptist Temple was allowed to remain on the property until its new facilities were finished. During that time, the church paid the city $12,500 a month in rent.

When City Manager Mike Gustafson first broached the idea of buying the church to council members, he suggested using it as office space. But council members were not sure. Other suggestions included eventually using it as recreation space. In the end, the council decided to buy the property as a way to control its eventual development.

At the time, Taylor said: "I certainly think we should buy it. We may sell this. This is the only way we can guarantee control of this piece of property into the future. We may green space it. I think we need to lock this property in to control its end usage. It can go out to commercial, entice someone else in here, or just (be) simple green space in a passive area."

[Last modified April 16, 2006, 08:54:29]