A new possibility
As we have continued to work through the design process for the Cornwallis site, we’ve been dealing with some significant maintenance issues at our current building on Pleasant Grove Church Road. We also learned that building on Cornwallis is going to be very expensive, leading to a more protracted fundraising period than we’d hoped for.
All of these factors came to a head on the Thursday before Holy Week, and it felt like we were stuck between a rock and a hard place. We would need to make a significant investment in the building we wanted to leave if we hoped to continue calling it home long enough to complete the building process.
But, God didn’t leave us there for long. That same day, we became aware of a property on the market—a church that checked nearly all of the boxes we’d created for our initial search over a decade ago. We quickly arranged for a showing. Fr. Patrick and most of the parish council members were able to visit the property the next day, and we all agreed that it was worth learning more. Our parish created a process several years ago to get any property of interest under contract as quickly as possible, and then conduct due diligence before bringing it to the parish for a vote to purchase.
We officially went under contract on 5408 Tryon Road before the end of Bright Week.
5408 Tryon Rd. Raleigh NC
First, the stats. It’s a former Baptist church that sits on 3.85 acres in Southwest Raleigh. A little over half the land is wooded with a creek at the very back.
Many of us are excited about the potential for that wooded land in the future. The current sanctuary (left portion of the building in the photo above) faces east.
5408 Tryon Rd. church exterior view (sanctuary on the right, office/classroom space on the left)
The L-shaped building includes a sanctuary with a fellowship hall directly underneath (right side) and a separate wing with classroom and office space. Play the video to take a walk inside. You’ll see the front entrance, narthex, and existing sanctuary with pews that seat 175.
As mentioned above, the fellowship space is directly under the sanctuary, complete with an L-shaped kitchen, seating for 200 people, bathrooms, and an additional private room. Play the video to check it out.
The classroom and office space is extra exciting because we don’t have anything comparable to it now, nor will we in Phase 1 of the Cornwallis development. Play the video to take a walk through the west wing of the building.
As mentioned above, we’re currently in the due diligence phase, gathering as much information as we can about the property before bringing it to the parish for a vote. To learn more about the property, click here to visit the Tryon Rd. Q&A. In the coming weeks, we’ll launch a capital campaign to raise two types of pledges:
Lump sum gifts toward the down payment and/or renovations
Monthly pledges to go toward the mortgage payment
If we move forward with purchasing the Tryon Road property, we hope to complete a few minor renovations before moving in the fall of 2025. We’ll have many opportunities to modify, expand, and customize the space over time, as creativity flows and funding allows. Our long-term vision will shift to supporting a mission parish, most likely in the Durham/Chapel Hill area.
Please keep all of this in your prayers! Above all, we ask that God will open the doors for us to pursue His will, and clearly close doors to anything that is not part of His Plan for Holy Transfiguration.