$3.95 Million for an Empty Kmart: An Immigrant Church Plans a Worship and Community Centre

• Spring of Life, a Ukrainian congregation, bought the former Kmart at 8501 Auburn Boulevard
• The 60,000-square-foot store had been empty since 2016
• The purchase price was $3.95 million
• Plans include a worship centre, café and immigrant services

A Ukrainian church has bought a long-empty department store in California to turn into a worship and community centre, the Citrus Heights Sentinel reported in October 2023.

Spring of Life paid $3.95 million for the 60,000-square-foot former Kmart at 8501 Auburn Boulevard in Citrus Heights, near Sacramento. The store closed in 2016, and the site had once been planned for a Studio Movie Grill cinema.

According to reports cited by the Sentinel, the church plans to turn the building into a worship centre, café and community centre offering services for recent immigrants, and hopes to begin using it within one to two years. A city spokeswoman, Marisa Brown, said no permits had yet been applied for at the site.

Former big-box stores are increasingly attractive to growing churches. They offer large, column-free floors, generous parking and prominent roadside locations, often at prices well below the cost of new construction. For towns, a church can bring life back to a site that has sat empty for years.

The challenges are conversion costs and approvals. A retail building must be adapted for assembly use, with fire exits, sound, heating and cooling, and the church must obtain permits and sometimes zoning changes before it can move in.

Diaspora and immigrant congregations have long found homes in converted commercial buildings, and the same approach can work in Jamaica. Churches considering a former supermarket, warehouse or store should budget for conversion and check planning rules early. A building that also offers a café, training or community services can serve far more people than Sunday worship alone.

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