Fort Collins church advances expansion plan

FORT COLLINS — A church in Fort Collins has moved within a final vote of launching an $8.2 million expansion with the help of a state clean-energy financing program.

With just two dissenting votes, the congregation at Foothills Unitarian Church, 1815 Yorktown Ave., on Sunday authorized Golden-based Ewers Architecture PC to complete design of the project’s first phase, and also authorized the church’s board of trustees to acquire $1.2 million of the cost through the Colorado Commercial Property Assessed Clean Energy (C-PACE) program. 

C-PACE enables owners of eligible commercial and industrial buildings to finance up to 100 percent of eligible energy-efficiency, renewable-energy and water-conservation improvements. Financing comes from providers of private capital at competitive rates with repayment terms up to 25 years.

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A final vote to break ground will be held at the church’s annual meeting on May 31. The church’s capital campaign workbook projects groundbreaking this fall and occupancy in a much larger new sanctuary by December 2021.

Lakewood-based Pinkard Construction, which has an office in Fort Collins and built the Northside Aztlan Community Center and several projects for Colorado State University, was retained as general contractor. 

Despite qualms over recent steep losses in financial markets, “it was very exciting to see the way people continued to be very positive about it,” said the Rev. Gretchen Haley, Foothills’ senior minister.

“We decided to wait on the authorization to construct until we could see if we could raise the additional money beyond the C-PACE, so we can have the least amount of loans possible,” Haley said. “We have conversations going both with outside groups and within the church. But this was a big vote; it’s like authorizing us to get the building permit.”

Haley said Foothills has about 600 adult members, 250 to 300 “friends” who often attend, and about 250 children in religious-education programs. About 450 people have signed up to make regular pledges. During fall, winter and spring, the church now holds three Sunday services in its 160-seat sanctuary, and usually has to add chairs in the adjoining social room to handle the overflow. Summer brings a reduced schedule of services, which is typical for a Unitarian congregation in a community with a large college or university population.

Phase 1 of the new construction would include a new 400-seat sanctuary plus a lower-level 100-seat chapel, said board president Sara Steen. Once the new sanctuary is completed, the existing one would be turned into a larger social hall with “garage-door” openings onto an outside patio with mountain views.

 “Phase 2 will likely include building out the main administration wing, more offices, RE building renovation and then the renovation of the social hall,” Steen said.

The total “net-zero” project also includes expanded parking with a circular drop-off lane, an archival room for church history, an elevator, doubling the number of classrooms, a commercial kitchen, additional restrooms, an apartment-like residence with a shower, and an enclosed central playground for younger children and a separate play area for older youths.

The church anticipated a total capital campaign of $10.8 million, including $4.5 million for the new sanctuary, $3.1 million for office additions and renovation of its main building, $1.7 million for renovation of the education wing, and $1.5 million for “contingencies” — which building expansion committee member Jerry Hanley told the congregation would include dealing with the effects of a potential economic recession. Hanley also served on that committee in 1996, the last time the church expanded, doubling its size to its current footprint.

“We’re really eager for our building to be a resource for the wider community and to better allow us to live into our mission rather than it being a limitation,” Haley said, “and so we hope this is a benefit not just within but for all of Northern Colorado.”

The seeds for Foothills were planted in 1886, when the Rev. Anna Jane Norris rode between Longmont and Fort Collins to promote the establishment of Unitarian societies. Unity Church was founded in Fort Collins in 1898 and moved into its first established home, a domed, stone structure on the southwest corner of College Avenue and Mulberry Street, in 1904. Unity Church merged in 1931 with First Congregational Church to form the Congregational Unitarian Church, with 140 total members. In 1968, the congregation voted to end its affiliation with the Congregational Church and join the newly formed, Boston-based Unitarian Universalist Association, and two years later moved onto its current property, which backs onto the north side of Drake Road halfway between Shields Avenue and Taft Hill Road.

Editor’s note: BizWest reporter Dallas Heltzell has been a member of Foothills Unitarian Church since 2011.

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