Church purchases property to expand current programs
By CHIARA CANZI I Special to the Daily Press
DOWNTOWN The youth center at the St. Peter and St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church of Santa Monica will soon get a facelift. The church has purchased an office building adjacent to its current address for close to $5 million to expand its youth service programs.
Ideal Property LLC sold the property on the 1200 block of Fourth Street to the church. They said the space had been vacant for the past seven months due to maintenance problems.
“The building has some deferred maintenance,” said Real Estate Agent Stanley Gerlach, who represented both the seller and the buyer. “There were issues with the city and the owner recognized that and discounted the price.”
Gerlach, of Coldwell Banker Richard Ellis, said the property was put on the market for $5.25 million but the church paid $4.33 million for the property. “The seller had more lucrative offers, but he decided to go with the church,” Gerlach said. “We had offers from an Indonesian group and a permanent supportive housing group and he could have gotten more money.”
But Gerlach said the decision to accept the church’s offer was an easy one.
“The owner wanted to support the church and their efforts in the community,” he said.
Since 1993 St. Peter and St. Paul Coptic Orthodox Church opened its doors to families in Santa Monica and the Westside.The congregation grew steadily throughout the years from 60 families in the early ‘90s to the current 250. “We bought the property next door mainly for the expansion of the church’s services,” said Father Mina, who has been with the church since it was first opened.“The bishop already came to bless the building.”
The purchased property is a 6,640-square-foot office building and was built in 1937.Father Mina said the church has big plans for the space.
“We want to build a youth center,a senior center and possibly, if we can get permits from the city,we would like to also have a day care,”he said.
The church already has a youth center in the back of its current location, but the idea is to expand it and make it even more appealing to Santa Monica and Westside youth.
“It’s more of a youth lounge,” said Father Mina. “We have a big screen TV, and sofas for boys and girls who want to come and hang out with their friends after school in a safe zone.”
Father Mina and other representatives from the church met with the owner before the final transaction was made and explained the intended use of the property.
“He saw our mission for the youth in the community and decided he wanted to help out,” he said.
The owner settled for less than the amount he asked for knowing that most of the money for the down payment came from donations and private donor loans.
“The down payment was a collaborative effort,” Father Mina said. “We have issues with the ventilation and air conditioning that we have to straighten out with the city, but other than that, we are ready to open.”
The proposed youth center is scheduled to open in August.
Another multi-million dollar properties was purchased in Santa Monica on Monday. An investment group led by Dowd Family Trust sold an apartment complex for $7.5 million.
Ocean View Plaza LLC purchased the 31-unit apartment complex at 2727 Sixth St. Each of the units were priced at $241,000. The complex contains 13 two-bedroom/one-bath units.
Originally published in the Santa Monica Daily Press print edition on April 5, 2008. Read the original PDF.