Proposed plan turns Near West End church into new housing

RICHMOND, Va. (WWBT) - A historic church in the Near West End could soon be demolished to make way for new housing after the congregation agreed to sell its lot to a local developer.

For about 75 years, people have worshiped inside a church off Malvern and Grove. The building has been the longtime home of Seventh Street Christian Church until several months ago.

Now, it’s mainly used for the church’s office needs.

“We need a building, but we don’t need 30,000 square feet of space and bringing it up to a working condition would not be a good stewardship of our funds. We spend over a third of our budget on this building, just keeping it up, just paying the bills, not even actually doing the other maintenance stuff that really needs to be done,“ Reverend Hollie Woodruff said.

Figuring out what to do with the church has been a priority for most of Woodruff’s tenure.

She said repairs like air conditioning issues, leaks, and more have been piling up and have pushed the church to move to another location already.

The organ was also already taken out and donated to a church in North Carolina.

Of about 60 active members, 45 typically show up for service.

“We’re pretty small, so to ask all those people to raise 5 million to renovate this space is one; it is just not even about being able to raise that amount of money, but also people are working really hard and struggling paying their own bills, and we couldn’t very much ask them to support this. And so, we just really want to be better stewards of our financial resources,” she said.

The church put out a request for proposal, not specifically set on housing for the site, though Woodruff says a majority of the applications had to do with it in some form.

She said her team considered where the money was coming from, how the developer would consider green space, and what would fit in with the area.

The church went with MacFarlane Partners, which plans to build 72 units made up of townhomes and condos.

“We didn’t want some huge condo high-rise. We deeply respect our neighbors in this community and wanted to leave a legacy that we’re proud of and that ultimately, they’re proud of. And then the cherry on top with Macfarlane Partners was that they said, hey, we’re going to attempt to preserve a portion of the sanctuary,” she said.

Other than the sanctuary, the rest of the church will likely have to come down if the construction is done as planned.

The church considered preserving it at times, but it would likely be too expensive.

The project is also planned to be built on the church’s parking lot, which is unused most of the year.

The busiest it gets is during the annual Greek Festival at the church next door. Woodruff said Seventh Street has allowed its parking to be used for the festival, though it technically owns it.

“Trading a large asphalt parking lot in the middle of a very busy area for more homes is a great trade for the city. But that doesn’t mean just letting developers put whatever they want,” First District Councilmember Andrew Breton said.

Breton said most of the concerns he has heard from neighbors are about the parking, congestion on the streets, and fears of ruining the historic site.

He said it is a unique project from typical developments residents might be thinking of, and reminds everyone that it is still in the very early stages.

The City will consider neighbors’ concerns when it looks at the special use permit.

The project also comes at a time when Richmond is desperate to lower housing costs, and adding density is typically the way to do that.

“Even market-rate homes that might be expensive in the neighborhood they’re in, they improve the affordability profile of the whole city because studies show that when you build market-rate homes in one neighborhood, it reduces the prices and gentrification in the next neighborhood,” Breton said.

Woodruff said allowing the project to move forward would let the church put the money towards things that more closely align with its mission.

“We hope to take the proceeds of the sale of this property to reinvest in the Richmond community in different and new ways,” Woodruff said.

The special use permit is still under review and must be approved by the council. The project is likely years away from completion.