Has your church facility has reached its limit? Perhaps you are out of worship center seating or space in your kid’s area or people are complaining about parking spaces??? So you might need to expand your capacity! Perhaps you can add on to your current facility, or maybe you need to completely relocate. Whatever your direction, you need to have a well-organized written plan for your expansion project.
A quality strategic plan, what we call the “Facility Goal”, are the first few steps along this facility journey. A strategic plan is important to coalesce around a common goal, to gain credibility with constituents, to present to donor candidates, to present to lenders when seeking a loan, to negotiate with a municipality, to attract future staff, etc. It’s a foundational document. At Church Facility Solutions, we have created many plans to expand a church facility. Here is what should go into a well-organized strategic plan.
- Recent history of the church particularly the forward and growing momentum.
- The compelling reason your church needs to expand.
- The specific vision for expansion.
- Your envisioned real estate or bricks and mortar requirements supported with financial feasibility.
- Your trade area including demographics and drive times.
- Your attender’s characteristics and needs. About the community that you serve.
- Specific real estate alternatives—either existing buildings or land sites.
- Detailed total project cost budgets.
- Projected future revenue matched to general operating costs.
- Costs to operate the future facility.
- Affordable debt load.
- Where the equity will come from.
- Project schedule (planning, pre-construction, construction).
If you would like to see detailed content of any of these areas, let us know. As you have heard before, failing to plan is planning to fail. Don’t be one of those who starts the process by talking to an architect and investing money in a plan that may never get designed nor constructed. Start with how much you can afford at a reasonable future date. If you would like help, let us know.
Church Facility Solutions serves expanding churches with A to Z services including strategic planning, financial feasibility, site or building selection, capital campaign, financing (as owner’s representative), project team selection, project and construction management (also as owner’s representative), furniture, fixtures, equipment, audio, visual, light procurement, and relocation coordination.
For more information about CFS, check out us out at https://churchfacilitysolutions.com or contact us at info@churchfacilitysolitions.com.