Purchased by Monte Sinai Iglesia De Dios for $180,000 in 1995, the former 5,500-square-foot garage at 2859 22nd Street has served as the church’s home since it was converted circa 1998.
The church sits on a 4,750-square-foot Mission District parcel which is zoned for development up to 40 feet in height.
And noting that the building will be delivered vacant, and is “ideal for investors, developers and owner/users alike,” 2859 22nd Street is now on the market with a $2.999 million price tag.
How does the financial windfall of sold church play out? Is it a legal entity where the profits are forced to be reallocated for further church uses? Can it be pocketed by the congregation?
My guess would be that the pastor is getting a big salary increase soon.
I’ve wondered the same after watching multiple large church parcels converted into big residential developments. I’m sure when the church sold is affiliated with a larger organization like the Roman Catholic Church that the proceeds get forwarded to the org. But what about little one-off churches like this that have no hierarchy? Seems ripe for fraud unless the church is governed by an independent non-corrupt board of trustees. I wonder how many times the pastor tells the congregation that he/she is going to use the funds to start a new mission. In Cabo. Preaching to the bartender.
Not sure how murky these religious organizations can get but I was reading the news in Hong Kong about a Buddhist monk embezzling a large sum of money and got caught. If Roman Catholic churches still have new pockets of sexual abuse cases which were buried for decades, imagine how sophisticated money laundering can be done.
Lesson: you can have faith in God, it is mortals you need to think twice about.
Financial fraud does occur in the Catholic church and is aggressively prosecuted. That’s one of the ironies of the sex abuse scandal. Molest a few kids and you’re gonna get a stern warning and a transfer to another diocese. It was just swept under the rug. But embezzle a few thousand from the treasury and you’re going down hard. The church cared more about money than children. It took lawsuits with financial penalties to finally get the attention of the Vatican.
I’m sure they’ll give it all to the poor.
So who will Calle 24 blame for gentrification, the developer or the church???
love this…
Holy Bonanza!!
This would be a good spot for an auto shop.
These guys in this church are bad actors on the block. They are always pulling some sort of nonsense with parking space chicanery, pylons, false signs, false hours, etc.
Zoned RH-3, so that’s a $1 million per unit land cost. Or $750,000 if granted a conditional use permit to build a fourth unit since the lot is slightly larger than average.