Church reaches out by building up
Multi-use developments pique interest of big-city congregations
VANCOUVER, BC—Unable to afford to build out, Central Presbyterian Church in downtown Vancouver’s West End is planning to build up—by demolishing their current facility and replacing it with a 22-storey multi-use development.
“We’ve had the vision for years about leveraging what we have so that we can do more of what we do, that being Christ’s hands on the community,” says minister Jim Smith.
“The existing building is in use from 6 a.m. until 10 p.m. seven days a week, and we’re just completely out of time and space.”
Under the proposal, the new building’s three bottom floors would be occupied by Central Presbyterian and include space for community use. Above them would be 168 rental units and 45 subsidized rental units for seniors. Plans also call for 133 parking stalls.
Smith says the seniors’ housing is in response to “the way they’re being mistreated by developers buying these three- and four-storey walkups, kicking the people out, slapping on a coat of paint, and saying, ‘Hey, it’s renovated. Your rent’s doubled.’”
The project would be entirely self-financed, including the seniors’ rental subsidies, and not require any government funding. The existing facility, which was built in the 1970s, is also mortgage-free.
Founded in 1926, Central Presbyterian currently has about 70 members.
The proposal still needs City Hall’s approval. Smith is hopeful that will come in time for work to begin this summer. He estimates construction will take about two years.
“It’s a most welcome development,” says Jonathan Bird, executive director of the City Gate Leadership Forum, a Christian non-profit that helps people of faith across Metro Vancouver to better serve their neighbours. For years, Bird and others have encouraged churches to seek new ways to become more integrated into their communities.
“Certainly all the conditions are ripe for more of this kind of thing,” he says, pointing to a new survey that shows Vancouver has the second least-affordable housing market in the world after Hong Kong.
“A fair number of Vancouver’s churches,” Bird adds, “are built on arterial roads that are being incrementally up-zoned for greater density. That automatically increases the value of those properties. So it’s silly not to do some type of comprehensive redevelopment when it comes time inevitably to replace the building.”
Dennis Wilkinson, who ministers in the West End as part of Meta Communities, also sees what Central Presbyterian is doing as the way of the future.
“Towers will go up—that battle was lost in the 60s and 70s for the West End,” he writes in an e-mail. “If there is a way for people of faith to reserve chunks of them as gathering spaces for worship, I am for it.”
“We think it’s cutting-edge,” says Smith. “And we think we’ve got a good model that’s transportable to other situations.”
Bird doubts it will ever become “a wildfire trend” among Vancouver’s churches, and yet Central Presbyterian’s example is definitely getting their attention. At least one other congregation in Vancouver’s downtown is considering a similar development, although formal plans have yet to be announced.
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