It’s a great question. If you’re going to journey your church through its biggest project ever, including investing millions of dollars in new facilities and equipment, this question should be well discerned and considered!
Here are some things to think and pray about.
What is God Saying? Since you are building God’s church, you should receive clear direction from Him through the prayer and discernment from many of the church’s leaders over sufficient time!
What is the Market Demand? From a purely market demand perspective, how many seats, currently in your trade area, are available and occupied? In other words, what is the seat vacancy in your trade area? Consider churches that have similar programming, style, and culture. Knowing this, will best inform a decision to add more seats to this trade area.
How Many Seats Do You Have Now? We generally recommend that a church double, at a minimum, the number of seats it has currently, so that the effort is worthwhile. Create a spreadsheet of various sized auditoriums (# of seats), their associated total square footage, and the likely total cost to construct. For example, if you have 300 seats now, then consider 500-800 seat scenarios. Use 50 SF per seat for a fully functioning church building.
What Can Your Church Afford? The number of seats you install depends on its cost. Use between $275-350/SF for the total project costs which accounts for every cost to create an owned church facility, including all acquisition, soft, hard, financing and outfitting costs. It can be less if you already own the land or want to delay some of the interior improvements. Then consider which of these total cost structures are attainable, which will stretch your church, but won’t put it into financial harm’s way.
How Much Equity Will You Have? The ability for a church to fund a future project depends on the amount of cash it can bring to the table and how large of a loan it can qualify for. It’s best to finance no more than 70% of the costs.
Clear as mud? If you need help figuring out how many seats your church should plan for, please give us a call. Church Facility Solutions is your property expansion project guide. We will coach and lead you to your envisioned destination. We can offer recommendations or get directly involved to fully execute your expansion project.
Give us a call today at 800-200-2089 to talk with one of our church building professionals, or you can learn more about your church expansion journey at www.churchfacilitysolutions.com.