Church launches multimillion-dollar plan for redevelopment

Omega Baptist Church project by the numbers

Omega Baptist

A local megachurch is proposing to turn the former United Theological Seminary into a park and community center for the public and eventually add a sanctuary for its congregation in a multi-phase project that could take up to 15 years to complete.

The first phase of the project is estimated to cost $5.5 million, according to officials at Omega Baptist Church, which is proposing the development. They declined to say how much the entire project would cost.

“A church ought to make a difference where you are,” the Rev. Dr. Daryl Ward, Omega Baptist Church senior pastor, said when making the request for the Planned Development to the city Plan Board on Tuesday. “We had outgrown our space and were looking elsewhere. But we made a commitment. We weren’t going to the suburbs.”

The church bought the 30.8 acre-site in 2005 for $1.35 million when the seminary moved to Trotwood.

The project’s first phase includes a 32,555 square foot multipurpose center to provide recreation and daycare as well as 215 parking spaces. The center would include a kitchen, open space, daycare/classrooms, administrative offices and an indoor track. The new facility would augment programs of the city’s Northwest Recreation Center. Another 21,000 square feet is slated to be added in the plan’s fourth phase for a total of more than 53,000 square feet.

In comparison, the city’s Northwest Recreation Center, built in 1978 and renovated in 2010, has 40,000 square feet. The Kroc Center in the McCook Field neighborhood, built for the Salvation Army through a $66 million grant from the Kroc Foundation, is 115,000 square feet on 17 acres.

“The Kroc Center might be the only comparable private development for religious/recreational in scope and mission to this project,” said Brian Inderriden, a city planning manager.

“This is not a church,” Ervin Matthews, executive director of the Omega Community Development Corp., said Thursday of the project. “This a community center that has a church in it. Think of it as a 30-acre park for the city that Omega will maintain … We are building it for the community.

“The whole thing provides activities for an area where there are fewer and fewer activities available,” he said.

A church sanctuary would not be built until the development’s third phase.

The 4,000-member congregation currently is raising the $5.5 million needed for the first phase. That phase is expected to take two to three years once the money is raised. “We are hoping that others in the community will partner with us,” Rev. Ward said. “We are going to charge forward with this, hoping that others will come along.” He said the church’s Community Development Corp. may be able to compete for state and federal money for portions of the project. “The church sanctuary will be built from money from the congregation,” Ward said.

The church’s current location is in the 1800 block of Salem Avenue. Eventually much of the church’s operations would move four blocks west to the Harvard Boulevard location.

“I am excited they are staying in the neighborhood,” Kevin Jones , chairman of the Northwest Priority Board said to the six Plan Board members on Tuesday. The priority board has endorsed the project.

Not all of the neighbors shared in the excitement. Problems with traffic and parking are major concerns for a development in the middle of a residential area.

Plan Board member Cynthia Ferguson , who lives in the neighborhood, said she often can’t get out of her driveway on Sundays during Omega’s three services on Salem Avenue because of the crush of traffic and on-street parking. City staff noted the development would have 538 off-street parking spaces, which is more than the city requires. The church’s current location has fewer than 100 off-street parking spaces.

Another neighborhood resident, Michael Henderson, said traffic would cause havoc. “We don’t have that kind of traffic in our neighborhood … This would cause undue stress on our neighborhood.”

The board voted 5-1 on Tuesday to approve the Planned Development with Ferguson voting no. The project now must go before the City Commission, likely Oct. 17. As a Planned Development, the city is able to better control the development and prohibit some uses, such as residential mental health or drug treatment and any emergency shelters. If approved by the City Commission, the Plan Board will review and approve all plans as the development goes forward. The development is expected to be completed over a 10 to 15 years.

The first phase also includes the demolition of three buildings: The Library, Bonebrake Hall and Fout Hall. Zimmerman Chapel and Robert Hall would be rehabbed and renovated for senior centers during the mutliyear project. Preservation Dayton Inc. sent a letter to the Plan Board opposing the demolition. None of the buildings are listed as historical structures by the city, state or federal government.

The second phase would include an amphitheater/plaza, parking for another 323 vehicles, and a new entry to the development off of Catalpa Avenue. Phase three would include construction of a 1,500-seat sanctuary. The final phase would add more classrooms, community rooms, a cafeteria and exercise areas. In all, the project would develop around 14 acres of the site; the remainder would be landscaped open areas for the community.

“The plan would put all the buildings in one mass. The demolitions will open up the site,” said Mike Taylor , vice president of Pinnacle Architects, which designed the development.