Location: 6-acre site in high-end, urban area of Houston
Objective: Relocate; raise money for development, find solutions for generating income

The property was willed to a medium-sized church, 500 average worship attendance (AWA), and they want to relocate to this exclusive site, but can only borrow $2 million, about 50% of what is required for relocation. The property size seems to limit the church campus potential, future growth, etc.

They recognize that development could solve these problems. For example, creating an open-air mall with the church as the anchor allows for church use of common areas in the mall, possibly including some of the tenant space, on Sundays and evenings. Parking is also shared, so this solution ultimately enables 6 acres to be adequate for church growth, while also providing the balance of necessary funds.

This solution, however, leads to the following questions:

• Is it advantageous to structure this project so it is a retail center that the church uses on weekends and evenings, with all the maintenance, insurance, HVAC, etc., assigned to the retail center?
• Is the above scenario better if the church sells the spaces and the retailers lease back to the church for weekend and evening use?