INFORMATION FOR
CONGREGATIONAL MEETING
JUNE 3, 2015
7:00 p.m.
History
Approximately 9 years ago, a group of investors, known as Brush Hill Road
Development, LLC (“Brush Hill”), purchased the five acre property
immediately to the east of ECRC. Brush Hill is made up of a group of
Christians who recognized that this piece of property had potential
strategic value for Timothy Christian Schools (“TCS”), Park Place (“PP”)
and/or ECRC. After holding the property for a number of years and with
little interest expressed by either TCS or PP, Brush Hill marketed the property
for sale and the front three acres were purchased by a third party, Artis
Senior Living, LLC (“Artis”), for development as a long term memory care
facility.
The back 2.146 acres, located directly to the east of ECRC’s building, are
still held by Brush Hill. As we know, ECRC does not have enough parking
spaces for all of our members and visitors. On many Sunday mornings,
people have to double park during our second service because there are
no spaces available. This is the case even though many members
currently park on the gravel lot currently owned by Brush Hill. If these two
acres are sold to a third party, ECRC’s parking problem will only get worse
and, with all contiguous land developed, our parking problem will not be
solvable.
Recent Developments
With this background, the SLT approved having Rick Bulthuis, the manager
of Brush Hill, approach his fellow investors to see if any of them would be
willing to sell the Brush Hill property to ECRC or even donate the property
to ECRC. Some of Brush Hill’s investors are members of ECRC, but
approximately 60% are not members of ECRC. Nevertheless, by God’s
grace, when these investors were approached by Rick Bulthuis about
donating the land, an amazing 88% of the ownership group indicated a
willingness to donate this land to ECRC! With an appraised value of
$1,165,000 for these two acres, this leaves a balance of approximately
$145,000 that must be paid to purchase this land.
One request that the donors of this land have made is that it be
developed into a parking lot with appropriate landscaping rather than
remain undeveloped. Our professionals estimate that, by working in
conjunction with Artis, it will cost approximately $225,000 to pave this land
with approximately 110 parking spaces (the maximum allowed) and put in
attractive landscaping. We are grateful that donors have committed
$85,000 toward the cost of this work should the congregation approve the
purchase of this land. We are also fortunate that Artis plans to start
development of their site this summer. We estimate we will save $25,000
($225,000 vs. $250,000) by having Artis’ contractors build our parking lot
while their equipment is on-site next door.
Congregational Approval
Where does that leave us? We are asking the congregation to approve
the following:
1. The purchase of 2.146 acres currently held by Brush Hill,
2. The development of this property with a parking lot and
landscaping, and
3. If necessary, the incurrence of up to $300,000 in debt to fund this
land purchase and development.
Additional Debt
The SLT, having managed through some difficult financial situations over
the last 6 years, is sensitive to recommending that the congregation
approve additional debt. We acknowledge that ECRC was in a highly
leveraged position after completing our new campus. By God’s grace
and the generosity of our congregation, the bank debt on our campus
has been paid down from $11.8 million in 2009 to $6.7 million today. As
pledge payments from our Light and Water campaign continue to come
in, we estimate that our bank debt at the end of 2017 (absent any
additional debt for this property purchase and development) will be $3.9
million1. We therefore believe that this additional debt, if necessary, is
manageable. As important, we believe that God has presented ECRC
with this opportunity. As a congregation we are faced with a choice of
taking advantage of this opportunity or losing it and we believe we must
taking advantage of this opportunity. This choice would be much more
difficult if 88% of the Brush Hill owners did not state they would donate their
1
Please note that in addition to the bank debt referenced in this paragraph, ECRC also owes $1,158,898 to
the Barnabas Foundation under an interest only loan. The principal balance of the loan has not changed
since 2009.
land and if we had not already received $85,000 to fund the
development of the property.
We are going to seek donations to cover as much of this cost as possible,
and ask for your financial support, but it is likely we will need to incur some
debt to fund and develop this property and ask for your approval to do
so.
Resolutions For Approval
We are therefore seeking approval for the following resolutions:
RESOLVED, that Elmhurst Christian Reformed Church (“ECRC”) is
authorized to accept the donation of the 2.146 acres east of ECRC
(the “Property”) from Brush Hill Road Development, LLC (“BHRD”) which
donation is subject to the obligation of paying BHRD the sum needed
to pay off the notes of certain BHRD members who are not donating
their interest in BHRD;
FURTHER RESOLVED, that the SLT is authorized to develop the Property
with a parking lot and appropriate landscaping;
FURTHER RESOLVED, that ECRC is authorized to incur up to $300,000 of
debt to fund the purchase and development of the Property;
FURTHER RESOLVED, that the officers of the SLT are hereby authorized
and empowered to take such steps and enter into such agreements as
are necessary to implement the foregoing resolutions.
We plan to review these matters at the congregational meeting
scheduled for June 3, 2015 at 7:00 p.m. in the Garden Room. Members
will be given the opportunity to ask questions and, of course, vote on
these proposals.
We are thankful to God for blessing us with this Church family and ask you
to be in prayer for God’s will to be done regarding this opportunity.
Respectfully submitted,
Senior Leadership Team
ECRC