Churches look to developers for survival
Housing useful and a form of income
Several city churches are turning to developers, the nonprofit housing sector and other outside partners to ensure their survival.
The churches, faced with declining attendance and increasing maintenance costs, are taking steps from hosting food truck nights in parking lots for vendor fees, to selling to developers with provisions for space in designs for new temples.
All Saints Anglican Church downtown at King and Queen streets demolished its old building and sold the land to Mississauga-based Coletara Development.
As partners, they plan to build a 23storey mainly residential tower next year that also gives ownership of a
first-floor section to the congregation for its new church.
In the North End, Hughson Street Baptist Church has partnered with Indwell — a charity that creates affordable housing — to build a $17-million two-storey church and attached four-storey building with 45 affordable apartments at Picton Street West and James Street North this summer.
Building new is more economical than “pouring millions” into the current Hughson Street North church building for repairs and renovations, says Pastor Dwayne Cline.
Other churches in Hamilton are holding preliminary talks with developers.
Christ’s Church Cathedral on James Street North wants to partner with a developer on a multimillion-dollar plan for residential, community and commercial space in its back parking lot.
Aside from the cathedral and All Saints, the Anglican diocese is exploring partnerships with developers in Niagara, Guelph and Halton, says Rev. Bill Mous, a director with the diocese.
“We’re looking for innovative ways to sustain the work we do.”
Stoney Creek United is exploring a partnership with the Kiwanis to replace its church with a smaller building and add affordable housing to the mix to compensate for fewer people attending church, says church council chair Doug Caldwell. “We don’t have the capacity and resources to maintain such a large building,” he said. “It’s too much space for what we need.”
“What we love about this is we are literally caring for our neighbours,” Caldwell said about the affordable-housing plan.
Cline, with Hughson Baptist, points out that gentrification is pushing poor residents out of the North End, where their roots and supports are.
“In watching our neighbours being displaced, we decided it (the site) was big enough that we could put housing in the building.”
Cline maintains the plan isn’t a result of financial considerations as much as it is a way to help the community
“We’re still putting in $2 million of the actual housing costs,” he said. The government is funding about half of the $12-million housing component, he said.
At Hughson Baptist and Stoney Creek United, it’s the first time Indwell and Kiwanis, respectively, have been asked to partner with churches.
At Central Presbyterian Church, Rev. Gregory Davidson prefers to find ways “to be vital and thriving” by opening up empty space to the community. The church is starting a farmers’ market on Wednesday.
“The idea is if you use your space for good and to make connections,” Central Presbyterian becomes a place others want to join, which helps it weather declining church attendance.
There is no denying the church trend to partner with developers.
Some, like Chalmers Presbyterian Church on Mountain Park Avenue on the Mountain tried in 2014 to partner with a developer in the way that All Saints Anglican did, but was unsuccessful. The congregation is now considering several alternatives, including amalgamating with another church.
Places of worship are often property rich but cash poor and “looking for ways to leverage their assets to generate a stream of revenue,” said Jason Thorne, the city’s general manager of planning and economic development.
“It’s not unique to Hamilton,” he said, pointing to Toronto and other cities where churches are “addressing their upkeep pressures by looking at what they can do with their land holdings.”
Thorne said Hamilton has more inquiries than applications (for redevelopment), but he expects to see more churches partnering with developers.
Cline said he’s had more than 20 calls from churches across Canada interested in doing what his congregation is doing to save their own churches. Churches struggling financially and with attendance need to look at partnering with developers to survive, Cline said.
“The only way to survive is to find a developer.”