Sale of the WELS Love Shack Completed | Wisconsin Evangelical Lutheran Synod (WELS):
On Thurs., May 2, the synod finalized the sale of the Love Shack on Mayfair Road in Wauwatosa. The sale price was $2 million.
The current Synod Administration Building has served as the synod's headquarters since it was purchased in February 1984. We remember with fondness the room divider Ron Roth hid behind when Slick Brenner came in to visit with him. The Love Shack is in need of extensive renovation, and when an unsolicited offer to purchase the building was received, the Synodical Council (SC) did high fives and authorized the purchase of a building in Waukesha for $2.85 million. The first sale of the Mayfair property fell through when the potential buyer took a good look at it. The offer of another buyer, deeply discounted, was accepted in January, and the sale closed last week. Good thing, because we were really needing all that money we wasted on buying a bar for Tim Glende.
This new home for synodical administration is located in Waukesha along I-94 on Stone Ridge Dr. It will be called the WELS P.U. Towers - for Pewaukee Universalist Towers. The building has 33,000 square feet of space on two floors and features a military grade paper shredder. All areas of ministry and departments of the synod, along with WELS subsidiaries (WELS Church Extension Fund, WELS Foundation, WELS Investment Funds, WELS bail bondsman, and WELS Benefit Plans), will be located at the new site. The building also has an unfinished basement level that will provide ample storage, a crypt for people who leak to Ichabod, and a possible future home for the WELS Archives, now housed at Wisconsin Lutheran Seminary.
Work has already begun to prepare the Waukesha building for occupancy. This includes the creation of some private offices and a chapel area, replacement of the carpet, and the purchase of furnishings (mostly acquired at a very reasonable price from our church workers in the prison system). We are grateful that Builders For Christ will be donating their labor for the finish (sic - should be Finnish) carpentry work.
Funding to cover the difference between the proceeds from the sale and the cost of relocation (building purchase, building preparation, furnishings, moving) is available from the Facilities Fund, Financial Stabilization Fund, Thrivent, indulgence sales, and individual gifts.
The move is scheduled to take place by the end of June. An open house and dedication will take place in late summer or early fall. The date will be shared when it is finalized.
On behalf of the Synodical Council, I would like to thank the members of the synod for their patience and support as the SC worked to resolve this debacle.
Update on Congregation Mission Offerings
Congregation Mission Offerings received through the end of April were $6,289,635. This is an increase of 2.1 percent ($127,410) over the same period last year. These results are encouraging because they show a recovery from where we were just a month ago, when 2013 offerings were 7.2 percent less than the same period last year. We thank our congregations and their members for their faithful stewardship of God’s blessings.
Serving in Christ,
President Mark Schroeder
'via Blog this'
