The Presbytery of Chicago assembly will meet Saturday, Feb. 8, to weigh a developer’s amended offer to purchase the Presbyterian Camps in Saugatuck while a conservation group’s backup bid still waits.
If approved, developer David Barker and a private equity firm headed by Paulus C. Heule of Grand Rapids stand to close on a sale of the 130 Lake Michigan-fronting acres at 621 Perryman St., a church camp since 1899, on Valentine’s Day this year.
The Presbytery, seeking to pay off loans resulting from its settlement of a 1990s sex scandal, voted in December 2012 to sell the parcel, directly south of the City of Saugatuck’s Oval Beach Park, to Barker for $10 million.
“I’m still offering $10 million,” Barker told The Commercial Record. “But because of legal and other matters that have arisen, I’m asking to put $9 million down on closing and pay the remaining $1 million 18 months later.
“That will help me take care of the additional costs upfront.”
Barker Jan. 22 assigned his rights and obligations to Dune Ridge SA, LP, a Delaware limited partnership whose general partner, Dune Ridge SA GP, is a Michigan limited liability corporation managed by Heule.
Read more at http://www.allegannews.com/articles/2014/02/05/cr_news/1.txt
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Related article: http://www.suntimes.com/news/25408930-418/presbyterian-groups-plan-to-sell-michigan-campsite-meets-opposition.html
The story says Chicago Presbytery is selling the property to make payments related to a lawsuit. But I imagine that many presbyteries and synods will be feeling pressure to sell off camps and other properties, just to raise operating cash. Mo-Ranch, for example, in the Texas Hill Country, is a valuable piece of real estate. It would be a real shame if this historic property were to be sold. And I have no idea if the idea has even been floated in Synod of the Sun. But when the money extracted from departing congregations has been spent, and the money coming in from remaining congregations dwindles, it’s inevitable that at some point the idea of selling off assets will be considered. There’s an accounting concept called “going concern”; it generally refers to a one-year period in which it is assumed a business will be able to continue. By that definition, the PCUSA is a going concern; but, if it were a business, would you look at trends of its last 20 or 30 years and invest in it?