UUFP From Donna Sprock
Space Committee Annual Report
July 1 2007 through Jun 30, 2008
Chairperson:
Donna Sprock
Members:
Sandy Burkes‐Campbell; Joanne Dingus; Jay Joseph; Alan Sheeler;
Michelle Sheeler; David Walsh; Pat Yaros
Meets:
Second Monday of every month
Purpose:
Define the options regarding growth of the Unitarian Universalist
Fellowship of the Peninsula in regard to space; Layout the
feasibility of each option in an informed and objective way; Carry
out the wishes of the Fellowship in regard to space.
For each option considered, we are keeping in mind the following:
•
How will it help us to fulfill our mission as guided by our vision
statement? This has been developed by the Planning Team and
discussed with the Fellowship in Town Hall meetings.
•
What are the Long Range Plan implications (i.e. How many people at
one service, how big would RE be?) This is currently under
development by the Planning Team.
Space Requirements:
The Planning Team conducted Focus Groups last year in order to
understand what the friends and members of our Fellowship feel about
our space requirements and what the future needs are perceived to
be. The data made it clear the majority of the participants (79
members out of 145 members at that time) feel we need more space.
Most commonly, there was a desire for more RE space, a sanctuary
large enough to accommodate the whole congregation at a single
service, a larger fellowship hall, and more parking. In addition,
the majority of the participants would like to see our Fellowship
grow in size. When asked how much growth would be desirable, most
answered that 200 to 250 members would be our best number.
We are currently 151 members strong and growing. Frankie Price
Stern, a Finance Consultant with the UUA, has helped us get an idea
of our future space needs. If we have the space to accommodate more
people, at current growth and turnover rates we are likely to have
250 members in 7 years. This gave the Space Committee a clear idea
of the size of the space we need in the future. The general design
rule for church design is 40 square feet of building space per adult
member. This gives us a figure of 8,000 to 10,000 square feet of
building space, 100 parking spaces, and 3 to 6 acres of land for our
future space requirements.
Fund Raising:
Frankie Price‐Stern has given our Fellowship a great deal of
guidance in this area. She consulted with us on our budget drive and
has helped us understand how to go about raising money for a space
expansion project. Our financing would come from four categories:
savings, a mortgage, a capital campaign, and potentially sale of our
current property. The numbers below are not exact, but are close and
give us a very good guideline as we assess our options.
Savings:
Since we paid off our mortgage a number of years ago, we have been
putting money into a savings account every month. The building and
land funds, in addition to other savings and cash on hand currently
come to $45,000.
Mortgage:
An affordable mortgage payment ($1,200 per month) and reasonable
interest rate (8%) on a 20 year note have been assumed, raising
$160,000.
Capital Campaign:
A capital campaign is an intense, time limited effort to raise
significant funds for a significant project. The rule of thumb is
that a capital campaign at a church can raise three to five times
the annual giving. Our most recent budget drive has just wrapped up
and our pledged giving this year came to $133,000. This projects a
capital campaign raising $400,000 to $665,000.
Sale of Building:
We own our building free and clear. The property was assessed about
10 years ago at $350,000. Even in the current real estate market,
this is considered a low valuation of our likely sale value.
Bottom Line:
Between savings, mortgage, and a capital campaign we can raise
between $605,000 and $870,000. With sale of the building, the amount
comes to between $955,000 and $1,220,000.
Options:
The Space Committee identified our options (which will be discussed
individually) to increase our space as follows:
•
Stay:
Purchase an adjacent property and expand in place. The Planning Team
commissioned a feasibility study on this option. The study was done
by Roger Guernsey, the architect who designed our current building
and is a member of the Williamsburg Unitarian Universalist Church.
•
Build New:
Purchase a vacant lot and build a new building. We have looked at
various empty lots that may meet our needs, gotten information, and
prices.
•
Buy & Remodel:
Purchase an existing building and remodel. We have looked at a
couple of churches for sale that may meet our needs, gotten
information, and prices.
For the last two options we set geographical boundaries on the
Peninsula of Denbigh Boulevard to the west, Route 17 and Hampton
Highway to the north, Mercury Boulevard to the east and Warwick
Boulevard to the south. This would keep the location central enough
for the majority of our membership and fairly close to Interstate
64.
For each option considered, we are keeping in mind the following:
•
How will it help us to fulfill our mission as guided by our vision
statement? This has been developed by the Planning Team and
discussed with the Fellowship in Town Hall meetings.
•
What are the Long Range Plan implications (i.e. How many people at
one service, how big would RE be)? This is currently under
development by the Planning Team.
We also developed a spread sheet to calculate the cost of each
option which took into account purchase price of land and/or
building, construction costs, and other fees. There is a spreadsheet
showing the cost breakdown at the end of this report.
Option 1: Stay
The Planning Team commissioned a feasibility study to answer the
first, most logical question most of our members had—can we purchase
an adjacent property and stay here? The simple answer it this
question is a qualified “yes.” The size of an adjacent property
added to our current lot would come to just under 2 acres. A new
parking lot and additional space added to our current space would
give us a 100 parking spaces and a building with 7,900 square feet.
This would give us the bare minimum number of parking spaces and
seat 250 people at a single service. There is a copy of the
information from the architect at the back of this report, but to
summarize there would be a much larger sanctuary, fellowship hall,
RE space, kitchen and offices than we have now. However, it would be
on the small side of the amount of space we need, at less than 8,000
square feet and most of the adjacent property would become parking
lot.
Cost:
Roger Guernsey gave us a very detailed cost breakdown of the costs
involved for this option. Our property is zoned differently than the
adjacent property and a good deal of site development will be
required. The owner is asking $550,000 as a purchase price, which
may or may not be negotiable. The new parking lot, site development,
new construction, renovation of the existing building, and other
fees are estimated to come to a total of
$2,376,000.
This option would be financially feasible only on a very long term
basis, over the next 15 years. The improvements would need to be
done in phases and would likely require 3 different capital
campaigns, one every 5 years.
Reviewing this option keeping in the mind the Vision
Statement leads us to the following observations:
•
We would have more space for RE and be able to have 200 to 250
people at a single service.
•
We would still be centrally located and possible be able to act as a
host church for P.O.R.T.
•
We would be reusing our current building and new construction would
be green.
•
However, the space would be on the small side and most of the
property would be parking lot at the final stage.
•
We would be fundraising continually for the next 15 years and most
of our finances would be tied up in the property and building,
making it more difficult to fund the appropriate staff for a larger
congregation and outreach programs.
Option 2: Build New
The Space Committee made a broad, preliminary search for sites
measuring 3 to 10 acres in the area roughly bounded by Denbigh
Boulevard to the west, Route 17 and Hampton Highway to the north,
Mercury Boulevard to the east and Warwick Boulevard to the south.
Although we have not targeted a specific parcel, we have reviewed
asking prices for a sufficient number of parcels offered for sale to
conclude that the UUFP could buy adequate land within these
boundaries for approximately $600,000. One such parcel is 3.2 acres
located at 3517 Hampton Highway in York County.
Cost:
We used this land price and the unit building and development prices
provided by the architect for “Option 1: Stay” to create an
estimated development budget for a 10,000 square foot building. All
together, the cost for this property came to
$3,635,000.
The majority of the cost was in land development and building
construction, costs that are not linked to land purchase cost. A
copy of the spreadsheet is at the end of this report. Reviewing this
Build New option keeping
in the mind the Vision Statement leads us to the following
observations:
•
A new building, because it would be designed to our exact
specifications, would provide the opportunity to most closely match
our space needs such as ample R.E. classrooms and a single Sunday
service. In other words, there would be no design compromises caused
by existing structures.
•
Assuming we can agree on a visible, central location, a new building
would probably do the most to support growth in membership.
Visibility is a strong element for attracting first time visitors;
convenience is an important reason for continued membership.
•
Building New is the least economical option. New construction is
very expensive for many reasons including the rising cost of labor
and materials, building code requirements, municipal site plan and
permitting requirements, and how long it takes.
•
The attached development budget totals $3.6 million, or roughly
three times our projected combined fundraising and borrowing
capacity. Scaling the project back to even the upper end of our
capacity would leave us with less square footage than we presently
have.
Option 3: Buy and Remodel
The Space Committee has looked at one 50 year old church property,
which we are not recommending to the congregation, but feel it is
useful to consider this building of 9,000 sq feet and a purchase
price of $725,000 as an example of what we might find in a location
that is more convenient to our membership on 3‐4 acres.
Cost:
We used this purchase price and the unit building and development
prices provided by the architect for “Option 1: Stay” to create an
estimated purchase and remodel budget for this 9,000 square foot
building. All together, the cost for this property would come to
$1,300,000.
A copy of the spreadsheet is at the end of this report.
Reviewing this Build New option keeping in the mind the Vision
Statement leads us to the following observations:
•
Ability to meet various aspects of our vision will vary with
property found.
•
Remodeling an older building is the most economically feasible
option based on how much monies we may have to spend. This would
perhaps give us an opportunity to “recycle” something already in the
community without destroying more green space on the peninsula.
•
Since we have seen one property with appropriate square footage for
our projected growth (although parking was limited) it is possible
that we can find other existing buildings that we could afford to
get into in a reasonable amount of time at a reasonable price and
still be able to afford to remodel it to suit our needs.
•
We can find a building with more space that would allow us to grow,
expanding the membership and increasing our annual giving which
would support the increased staff and our outreach goals. This
concludes this report of the findings of the Space Committee to
date. This information is available upon request and we are each
available to answer questions. We intend to conduct a straw poll at
the
Financial Figures for all options can be found in the
appendix of the UUFP Annual Report.