The Eastpoint Christian Church has bought several former storefronts and the surrounding 6 acres at Clarks Pond in South Portland for a purchase price of $7 million.
The Portland-based church hopes to move into renovated space at the former Bob’s Discount Furniture and former HomeGoods stores within the next year, according to Scott Taube, the congregation’s lead pastor.
The storefronts have been empty for several months after both Bob’s Discount and HomeGoods moved to new space adjacent to the Walmart and other big-box stores and restaurant chains, grouped together off Payne Road in Scarborough.
This week Joshua Reny, South Portland’s assistant city manager and economic development director, told the Current that “having space occupied is always better than having a vacancy.”
However, he also said that the “loss of tax dollars resulting from the sale of real estate to (the tax-exempt church) is a challenge for any municipality when it occurs.”
But, Reny added, “We also recognize that the proposed redevelopment will bring many people to the mall area on a daily basis, and those folks are potential customers for other businesses” located nearby.
Founded in 2004 by Taube, Eastpoint serves parishioners from New Gloucester to Kennebunk and for the past year or so, as the size of the congregation has swelled, staff have been exploring the idea of moving to a larger home.
The church is now located at 58 City Line Drive, near the Portland International Jetport and has an auditorium that seats 365 people. With about 1,200 congregants attending each week, however, space has been a persistent concern, according to Taube.
On Sunday mornings, he said, it is not uncommon for people to be turned away from a service and asked to attend another, simply for lack of seating. And on Easter Sunday the total attendance for all services capped off at 2,200, Taube said.
That’s why starting this month Eastpoint is adding a fourth service on Sunday morning to help spread out attendance and avoid overcrowding.
Maine is one of the least religious states in the country, ranked 48th according to the Pew Research Center, with only 22 percent of the state’s population attending a weekly religious service weekly.
But Taube and Kurt Holmgren, the outreach pastor at Eastpoint, say they’re undaunted by these statistics, especially as they have witnessed such strong growth in their own church.
The two believe that having a larger presence in the community will not only help alleviate Eastpoint’s overcrowding problem, but also allow them to fulfill God’s greater plan for their church.
The plan, Holmgren said, is to “not build a church that’s just used for Sunday,” but rather to build something that’s more of “a gift for the community.”
Holmgren and Taube are inspired by the 242 Community Church in Michigan, which in addition to weekend services, offers an array of activities and space exclusively designed for community use, including athletic fields, a fitness facility, public banquet and meeting rooms, a cafe and sandwich shop and even a school for the arts.
What has replaced more traditional, mainline churches are community-oriented churches that boast modern industrial architecture, full rock bands that bring a live concert worship experience, and pastors who preach in blue jeans and T-shirts.
In the new space, Holmgren and Taube hope to have features from a 1,500-seat auditorium to a turf soccer field, to a commercial kitchen, to a community center, a gym and more. That’s why the 92,000 square feet of former retail and warehouse space at Clarks Pond was so attractive.
“It’s such a big space for half the money” it would take to build from the ground up, Taube said.
Sun Media Wire staff writer Kate Irish Collins contributed to this report.
Alex Acquisto can be reached at 781-3661 ext. 106 or aacquisto@theforecaster.net. Follow Alex on Twitter: @AcquistoA.
The Eastpoint Christian Church is buying the former Bob’s Discount Furniture and the former HomeGoods stores at Clarks Pond in South Portland for $7 million.
Scott Taube, left, is the lead pastor the Eastpoint Christian Church, and Kurt Holmgren is the church’s outreach pastor.
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