Holy Redevelopment! – Part 1: California

Why are we talking about faith properties in the context of brownfields, you ask? The fact is that many old church buildings are laden with environmental hazards or conditions that render them hard to redevelop and it’s common to find them vacant or abandoned. They might even be located on brownfield properties in older urban border areas between residential, commercial and industrial zones.

Interest in faith property redevelopment is growing as more and more churches grapple with declining membership and increasing costs to maintain aging property. With tens of thousands of houses of worship projected to close in America (Reinhard, “Affordable Housing: YIGBY Movement Seeks to Counter NIMBY Movement,” Urban Land, 2-20-2024) it is more important than ever to help religious leaders increase their understanding of brownfield strategies. The Center for Creative Land Recycling (CCLR) has provided technical assistance to several faith institutions interested in redevelopment. We showcase some of those projects here.

Sacred Heart Church, San Francisco, 2012 (Noehill.com)

Sacred Heart Church, San Francisco, Photo: Andrew Dudley / Hoodline.com 5-14-2015

Some of these properties, such as Sacred Heart Church in San Francisco, have been bought by private developers and turned into restaurants, breweries, market-rate or even luxury apartments. This Catholic Church and adjacent convent sat vacant for over ten years, then was used as a roller skating rink for another decade before receiving National Landmark status, and now approvals for redevelopment into housing. The cost of retrofitting historic buildings and managing leftover toxic materials like asbestos and oil tanks is usually prohibitive for any “affordable” or community-oriented uses. Many of these challenges can be overcome through grants and collaboration. This article only looks at cases where there is a non-profit, community-serving end use in addition to religious space – thus preserving a “holy” aspect to the buildings – as well as some significant environmental investigation or cleanup.

The congregations with the most challenging brownfield conditions tend to be minority-owned or led, and also in areas highly impacted by pollution. They are sometimes located in older commercial buildings which have already been retrofitted to make an affordable place for worship and gathering, such as declining stripmalls. Despite challenges these congregations may not want to sell and move from their home base if they are experiencing financial problems. Partnering with a developer to redevelop the site to add housing or other economically viable uses is a win-win for the congregation and wider community.

In California we know of at least four recent examples of “Holy Redevelopment,” three of which surfaced because of the availability of state Equitable Community Revitalization Grants (ECRG) over the last three years. CCLR, as the Brownfield Technical Assistance Provider to the ECRG program, supports all grantees to successfully manage their grants and overcome challenges as they advance their projects forward. If it had not been for this program, these affordable housing projects could have been stymied by investigation and cleanup costs. In the Golden State, the thousands of acres of religious-owned sites are opportunities to help address the extreme shortage of housing, improve the health and safety of the neighborhood, and improve church finances.

Friendship Senior Housing – Funeral Home Demolition

The first example is Friendship Christian Center, an independent church which owns a former funeral home/mortuary chapel constructed in 1973 on a ½ acre site in West Oakland, CA. They converted it to a church in 1994, but only upon starting development of 50 units of affordable senior housing did they discover significant vapors in the soil and trace volatile organic compounds (VOCs) in the groundwater, in addition to lead in the soil. After securing ECRG funding, Community Housing Development Corporation (CHDC) demolished the mortuary structure. The environmental team excavated and disposed of the lead and VOC contamination, and used a sub-slab vapor barrier under the new building. California’s current high cleanup standards for residential development make these remediation projects expensive – the ECRG budget is $805,000 even for this small site and limited scope.

CHDC is co-developing the project with the newly formed Friendship Senior Community Development Corporation, and the new building construction is now nearing completion. The new complex will have flex community space and offices on the ground floor that the church will lease for worship and operations.

Central Assembly: Strip Shopping Redevelopment

The second case is the redevelopment of an early 1960s strip shopping center in an unincorporated suburban area in El Sobrante, CA. Central Assembly of Richmond, part of the Assemblies of God, bought the abandoned site a couple of blocks from their worship center and used it as a parochial school until the Covid pandemic caused it to close. The high-ceiling supermarket had been retrofitted to assembly and gymnasium space. The side buildings formerly containing other retail — including dry cleaners and a laundromat — had been recently used for the school’s lockers, offices and classrooms. When Central Assembly tried to sell the property in 2021 they realized that significant hazardous chemicals and soil vapors were present, and that the adjacent former gas station’s tanks had been removed without any documentation. It is not sellable or developable as it is, and Central Assembly was fortunate to be able to access an ECRG Round 2 grant for investigation. A hefty $2.2 Million on the two-acre site is budgeted for the complicated investigation to delineate all the soil and groundwater contamination.

Central Assembly Current site condition – Sobrante Ave. (Google Maps – Aerial Image )

An affordable housing developer for this project will be secured after the investigation results and potential cleanup scope are better defined. Central Assembly needs to apply for a cleanup grant and is actively advocating for the State to provide more funding to the ECRG program to help projects like this.

Agnes Memorial: Mortuary Garage Demo & Replace

Agnes Memorial Church of God in Christ on International Blvd in East Oakland, CA has had its home in this full-block complex since 1977. Grant Miller Mortuaries operated there for decades, including approximately 17,000 square feet in back used for various support and more recently, commercial automotive repair. The church and its Academy for elementary age children maintain and will continue to use the chapel and other spaces in the front of the building, while the back is demolished and replaced with 54 affordable senior apartments and a ground floor parking garage, coordinated by non-profit sponsor Community Action Alliance (CAA) in partnership with private developer Related Companies. DTSC awarded $1.4 Million from ECRG to CAA for cleanup costs, and remediation is about to start while other funding is assembled.

Agnes Memorial/Community Action Alliance – Rendering, HKIT Architects, 2024

Lessons for Agencies / Brownfield Professionals:

CCLR’s experience assisting these projects teaches us a few helpful lessons. There are many reasons land recycling professionals should be proactive about assisting faith communities with redevelopment. Congregations need trusted pathways and financial assistance for these properties – for professional technical assistance around such issues as property assessment, environmental review, zoning analysis, financial projections, and sometimes legal research – before they make decisions on reuse options or ownership. Various public agencies and philanthropies give grants to new community-based organizations to get projects off the ground, or even loans and grants to established developers for acquisition and pre-development. Why not to a church which is trying to assess feasibility of housing on their site?

Property owners with vision, creativity, and community concern are highly valuable in affordable housing development since it takes time and patience. Faith-based congregations can also be very creative, sometimes finding better ways to achieve goals. Even without considering the religious or spiritual value of these institutions, think of all the community services that would be lost if congregations give up before adapting their properties to a more sustainable model (Stackhouse, “Saving Sacred Places as Community Assets”, 2024). These facilities are integral parts of a sustainable community which are very difficult to replace. These three examples represent a new wave of truly faith-based efforts to enhance their neighborhoods and reduce displacement of community institutions and individuals through preservation and equitable redevelopment.

Are you a faith-based leader interested in learning more about redevelopment? Schedule a meeting with a CCLR expert to get started!