J Magazine Winter 2019

The news was a shocker.
First Baptist Church, said
Pastor Heath Lambert,
“was in cardiac arrest.”
So in September
the largest landowner
Downtown put most of
its real estate on the market.
Once one of the largest Southern Baptist
churches in the state, First Baptist’s membership
dropped by 20,000 in the last decade,
with church attendance declining from
10,000 to 3,200. The budget shrank while
routine maintenance of $5 million took
about one-third of its budget, and deferred
maintenance more than half.
The former mega church was “bleeding
from its pores,” Lambert said.
To solve the debt crisis, the congregation
took the bold move of deciding to consolidate
its operations into the original church
building at 124 W. Ashley St., and offer the
remaining 10 blocks for sale.
First Baptist’s financial crisis is unusual
only in its scope and scale. All of Downtown’s
churches are experiencing declining
membership and a drop in revenue.
There are several factors. People are
attending suburban churches rather than
driving Downtown. And fewer people attend
church, especially millennials, and when
they do attend, they give less money than
previous generations.
Churches are having to ask themselves
tough questions about who they are, what
they do and where they do it.
Two San Marco churches, Southside
Assembly of God and South Jacksonville
Presbyterian, recently have made major
decisions about their property.
Southside Assembly sold its property
on Kings Avenue last year for $6 million to
Chance Partners, which is building a 486-
unit apartment complex called San Marco
Crossing. The congregation bought property
at Southpoint for a new building that will be
known as Lineage Church.
South Jacksonville Presbyterian is
selling 2.1 acres of its 2.87 acres on Hendricks
Avenue to Harbert Realty Services of
Birmingham, Ala., which plans to build 143
apartments called Park Place at San Marco.
The church will retain the sanctuary and
office space.
In Downtown, the Providence Center,
adjacent to the Basilica of the Immaculate
Conception, is expected to go on the market
next year. The former parish school was renovated
in the 1980s into offices for Catholic
Charities and other ministries of the Diocese
of St. Augustine. Catholic Charities moved
to the du Pont Center this summer and St.
Francis Soup Kitchen is moving to a new
location at the end of the year.
And last year, Simpson Memorial United
Methodist Church moved out of its deteriorating
Springfield property, and now shares
space with First United Methodist Church.
It’s part of a trend seen across the country.
Churches are repurposing their property,
either through sales or long-term leases.
Some do it out of economic necessity; others
as an investment.
In New York, Marble Collegiate Church,
a historic church where Norman Vincent
Peale was once pastor, is collaborating with
HFZ Capital Group. The church, which is a
partner in the venture, sold part of its property
and air rights to HFZ, which plans to build
600,000 square feet of office space.
“There’s a trend throughout the country
of urbanization,” Casey Kemper, executive
South Jacksonville Presbyterian is selling 2.1 acres
of its 2.87 acres on Hendricks Avenue. Developers
plan to turn the space into apartments.
TOP: TIMES-UNION ARCHIVE; JEFF DAVIS