Potter Lawson
A July groundbreaking is planned for St. John’s Lutheran Church’s affordable housing project.
As Madison grappled with heavy rains and flooding in the summer of 2018, pastor Staci Marrese-Wheeler found herself scrambling to keep the basement of her church dry. The east-side church, known at the time as Lakeview Moravian Community Church, was already in need of some upkeep, but flooding revealed the building’s foundation had cracked too.
“I kept a pair of Crocs under my desk so I could take off my socks and go downstairs and wet-vac,” Marrese-Wheeler says. At one point, she and other church members tried to lay down sandbags to contain the flooding.
Marrese-Wheeler says the experience was a turning point, and she began to think about redeveloping or repurposing the older church, at 3565 Tulane Ave., next to Schenk Elementary and Whitehorse Middle School.
“It was the consistent and increasing amount of money you put into the maintenance of any aging building” that was starting to add up, says Marrese-Wheeler. After considering “big projects that needed to happen” to stay in the building, she adds, “we had to think differently about the space we needed.”
Lakeview Moravian, which has since joined with Zion Lutheran Church and is known as Common Grace, is now planning a redevelopment of their property into a community center, with Common Grace just one of several occupants. Eastmorland Community Center was incorporated as a nonprofit in 2021, and a daycare and fair trade retailer now operate out of part of the church space.
Common Grace is one of several churches in the Madison area considering the sale, redevelopment or repurposing of their property. It’s part of a national trend. Spurred by shrinking congregations and rising maintenance needs, religious properties across the country are reassessing their futures, including the property they own.
As many as 100,000 projects nationwide are expected to launch over the next decade, including those connected to one-third or more of churches in Madison, according to Gone for Good? Negotiating The Coming Wave Of Church Property Transition, edited by Pres House executive director Mark Elsdon. (Pres House opened a seven-story apartment building in 2007 that provides housing for about 240 students and revenue for the ministry.) The phenomenon is widespread enough that city of Madison planners are adjusting future land uses at many church sites across the city to prepare for potential changes.
“At the very time that the costs of maintaining religious property are rising, [church] membership and participation is declining,” says Elsdon.
“The status quo for these properties is simply not viable for many of them. So they will change. Not every one of them, but across our city, we will see them change. It’s more a question of what it’s going to change into.”
For some churches, Madison’s affordability crisis is pushing them to consider housing options, especially in more central, already dense locations. Common Grace considered housing for their site, but found they don’t have enough space to effectively use tax credits for affordable units there.
“Where else do we come up with infill locations anymore?” asks Elsdon. “It’s not very easy. There’s not a lot of space in the urban cores of our cities, including Madison, to do new stuff, because it’s all used. Here’s an opportunity now for a number of parcels to be reconsidered.”
Zion Lutheran and Lakeview Moravian merged in 2020 as both congregations faced declining membership; about 60 members now make up Common Grace.
Before the merger Zion sold their building at 2615 Linden Ave, which is being replaced by a three-story, 32-unit apartment complex. The money from the building sale will help make construction of the new community center possible.
Interacting with the Zion members has helped those from Lakeview Moravian come to terms with saying goodbye to a building with a lot of sentimental value. “It’s been a tremendous amount of change for a small group of people,” says Marrese-Wheeler. “There’s a real sentimental attachment and emotional bond with not only a relational community, but a physical space.”
In downtown Madison, the signature stained glass windows at St. John’s Lutheran Church will come down May 6 (they will be repurposed) in preparation for the July groundbreaking for a $51 million, 10-story, 130-unit apartment building. The church donated its land, estimated at $5 million, to the project, which will include 110 affordable units and 20 that are market rate. According to Pastor Peter Beeson, the affordable units will be kept affordable for the next 40 years.
Beeson says the church will continue to occupy the first floor of the new building, with pieces of the old building repurposed as accents in the new space. When the new building opens in 2026, the housing above the church will enter city property tax rolls rather than remaining tax free. “You can’t have your cake and eat it too,” he says.
Beeson recommends other congregations facing challenges start thinking about what to do with their property before reaching a crisis point, since redevelopment timelines can be years long. “Start early, and discern together with your neighborhood what the needs are,” he says. Consultation with the neighborhood and the church’s social mission — it served as a shelter for homeless residents for decades until the COVID-19 pandemic — guided St. John’s toward an affordable housing redevelopment, says Beeson.
At Arbor Covenant Church, just off the Beltline on the city’s south side, the congregation is planning way ahead. Common Wealth Development, a nonprofit Madison developer that focuses on providing affordable housing, bought the property last year, but is taking a long-term approach to redevelopment. The church will continue to operate in the space for the next decade or so while Common Wealth connects with community members to determine what future uses could benefit the neighborhood.
Justice Castañeda, Common Wealth’s executive director, says church members had made the church a “pillar of that neighborhood,” but were facing lower enrollment and an aging congregation and wanted to “keep the spirit of [the place] moving forward.”
“We’re not in a rush. The time matters,” says Castañeda.
Elsdon expects redevelopments to continue at a steady pace. “We will see this transition happen in Madison over the next 10 to 20 years,” he says. “From what I hear from church leaders I talk to, this is a question that everyone is asking.” Elsdon thinks as many as 40% of church properties could be redone in some way in coming decades.
For Marrese-Wheeler, building the new community center is a way for her congregation to control the fate of their property and leave a positive legacy.
“We don’t want to be in a situation where we have to sell our property to somebody who’s not going to put something good where we were,” she says. “We love our neighborhood and we have been there for 70 years…we want to leave something good in our stead.”
