Church buys ex-grocery to continue expansion

First it housed Shop 'n' Save. Then it housed Mr. K's Food Center. Now, if everything goes according to plan, it will be God's house.

Church leaders at First Assembly of God are poised to close a deal that will make them the owners of the 60,000-square-foot building at 254 Silver Springs Road that just can't seem to make it as a grocery store.

Pastor Gary Brothers was unavailable for comment, but David Donley, a church member who also is brokering the sale of the property, said they expect to close the deal on April 15, and they hope the first service will be held there between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

The church -- currently located at 750 N. Mt. Auburn Road -- would buy the property from Supervalu, a Minnesota-based food retailer with distribution centers in Scott City and St. Louis, which had been the food provider for Mr. K's until it closed in 1999 citing financial concerns.

Financial terms of the church's acquisition were not disclosed.

Outgrowing auditorium

"We're in a position now with our growing congregation that our parking lot is not big enough, our auditorium is not big enough," said Donley, a real estate agent at Commercial Real Estate Specialists Inc. and Divine Homes Realty. "Basically, we don't fit."

The news comes as a surprise to residents along Old Hopper Road. Six months ago some of them opposed the congregation's desire to build its bigger church and a recreation complex along the 3700 block of Old Hopper.

Neighbors, fearful of traffic the project might bring to what they considered already overburdened roads, had asked the Cape Girardeau City Council to deny a rezoning for the church's plans. The development concept had included a sports complex, an amphitheater and a day care.

Eventually, the council decided it couldn't deny the rezoning because of legal precedents that say municipalities cannot dictate a church's location.

The growing church will use Mr. K's as a sanctuary for about five years, Donley said. That decision puts its plans for Old Hopper on hold.

Now they can build that church at a slower pace while occupying the bigger Mr. K's building -- almost twice the size of their current church, Donley said.

Delayed conflict

Mark Lunbeck lives at 3719 Old Hopper Road and said he opposed the original plan. He said the church's proposed parking lot would have been too close to his backyard.

He was glad to hear construction would be delayed.

"That sounds like good news for me," he said. "When I moved here two years ago, I planned on selling in a couple years, so at least this buys me some time. We'll just see what time holds."

Donley said the Mr. K's property has 550 parking spots. They plan renovations to create a 1,100-seat auditorium, more than twice the number they have at their current church.

Donley said that his understanding was that the church would likely keep the former grocery store after it builds its new church on Old Hopper and convert it for some other ministry. He deferred all other questions to Brothers.

City plan review specialist John Creutz said no plans have been submitted, but church architects have contacted the city to say plans are forthcoming. Creutz said the property is zoned for commercial enterprises and churches are allowed in such zoning.

The church will be responsible for converting the building for its congregation's use, he said, which likely means more exits and more toilets will have to be added.

"Otherwise, there probably won't be any problems," he said.

City attorney Eric Cunningham said, while the church may have been exempt from its zoning powers, "it is fully responsible for getting any building permits and inspection approvals that anyone else would have to have."

Mayor Al Spradling III said he hadn't heard of the church's change of plans, but said he had no problems with them.

"I think using existing property like the old Mr. K's is preferable," he said. "I frankly was never all that concerned with the claims out there on Old Hopper that the road wouldn't support it. But if this is something they want to do, it sounds like a good use out there."

smoyers@semissourian.com

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