Case Studies

When tasked with analyzing the sustainability of owning an office building, President of the Foundation for Evangelism (FFE), Jane Wood, contacted Wesley CDC as a consultant. After some initial analysis, the FFE headquarters located in beautiful Lake Junaluska was found to be underused but highly attractive in the niche Haywood County market. Half of the existing facility was dedicated assembly space which was rented out several times a year when the Lake Junaluska Convention Center held large events like the Annual Conferences for the Western NC Conference and Holston Conference of the United Methodist Church. Aside from these weeklong events, over half of the FFE building was largely vacant. Wesley worked with Wood and found this negatively impacted the bottom line of the FFE’s budget and knew a change needed to be made. Wesley did a market study of available Class A office space and found an opportunity existed if the FFE building was repurposed. By renovating the underused half of the FFE Headquarters to high-end office space suites, a new market away from the urban Asheville market was created. Interest from tenants was immediately high at rental rates that rivaled downtown Asheville. By negotiating leases with four new tenants in the financial, services, and real estate sectors, the building now generates revenue for the Foundation. Wesley handled the project from inception to completion offering consultation, brokerage, and construction management services for a turnkey engagement.

After questions began arising among Davis Street’s leadership surrounding the long-term viability of the church, a Sustainability Task Force was formed. Wesley CDC was engaged to assess the current reality and financial wellbeing of the church. The consultation engagement discovered the church was vastly underused, the building and grounds were costing the congregation a growing portion of their budget each year, and the majority of the attending membership had moved to the northwest, away from the local community in which the church was located. Wesley worked closely with the Sustainability Task Force to explore leasing, space sharing, and relocating options. The decision was made to have Wesley place the church on the market so they could relocate to an area more central to where its attendees lived. An ideal buyer emerged in a group that provides counseling and therapeutic services to adolescents who suffer from autism and other mental health conditions. The buyer desires to repurpose buildings with unique architecture like Davis Street’s church and agreed to pay homage to the years of stewardship of the church. The buyer was also able to pay a competitive price for the downtown property. Now Davis Street enjoys the invested proceeds from the sale without the burden of an aging building as they share space with another UMC to the northwest.

At the Annual Conference of the WNCC UMC in June of 2021, Rev. Rob Parsons met with Wesley CDC to dream about a building that could serve as a foster home presence in the heart of Henderson and Polk Counties where he serves as pastor for Saluda UMC and With All UMC. Both churches have robust ministries geared towards disadvantaged children, child advocacy, and abuse victims. Understanding safe foster care is central to achieving effective ministry for children in need, a property in close proximity to a church would be ideal. Rev. Parsons was aware of a former neighbor to the church, Cam, had recently passed and her property was being placed on the market. In order to get into position to purchase the home, many things had to align quickly. Partnerships between Saluda UMC, Wesley CDC, Crossnore Children’s Home, an anonymous donor, and the United Methodist Foundation of Western NC had to quickly cobble together a deal that allowed for the acquisition. Fast forward to today and the home serves 6-8 foster children under the shadow of Saluda UMC’s steeple where the congregation and volunteers can assure children of a safe environment and access to the resources they need.