More Than 30 Developers Bid for a Richmond Church. The Congregation Chose 72 Homes, Not a High-Rise

• Seventh Street Christian Church in Richmond, Virginia, is under contract to developer Charles Macfarlane.
• The plan is 24 townhomes and a four-storey, 48-unit condo building: 72 homes in total.
• More than 30 developers put in proposals, and the chosen bid was not the highest.
• The building needs millions of dollars in repairs; part of the sanctuary will be preserved.

A Richmond congregation with roots going back almost two centuries has decided that its future does not lie in a large building. The Richmonder reported that Seventh Street Christian Church, in the city’s Near West End, is under contract to be turned into 72 housing units.

The church’s building needs millions of dollars in repairs. The Richmonder described a shaky heating and cooling system patched together with 23 mini-split units around the building. When the congregation put the site out to developers, more than 30 submitted proposals.

It picked a group led by developer Charles Macfarlane, which plans 24 townhomes and a four-storey building with 48 condos. Macfarlane’s group was not the highest bidder, and it did not propose the tallest building. Pastor Hollie Woodruff, who arrived in 2017, said: “They were really, deeply thoughtful. We did not want a six-story high rise; we wanted to pay attention to density and try to leave a nice legacy for the community.”

The project still needs a Special Use Permit under the current zoning, and City Council approval is expected to be required. While the sale goes through, the congregation plans to rent out meeting space. Its Schantz organ is being taken apart and donated to a congregation in North Carolina. Part of the sanctuary will be preserved, although its future use has not been decided. The pastor indicated that the church’s next home is unlikely to be a large building.

Two lessons stand out for Jamaican church boards and property owners. The first is that a congregation selling land has more choices than simply taking the top price: it can weigh density, design and what the neighbours will live with. The second is that a building’s repair bill can quietly eat a church’s mission, and a well-planned sale can turn that burden into homes. For investors and returning residents looking at small residential schemes, church-owned sites that come to market this way can be among the better-planned opportunities.

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