[Sly Fox]

Its not exactly earth-shattering news but it would seem off to see the landmark being used for something else.

Falwell: We'll sell if the price is right

Ron Brown
rbrown@newsadvance.com
February 5, 2006

The Rev. Jerry Falwell’s conditions for selling the current Thomas Road Baptist Church are pretty straightforward.

“If someone would offer $6.5 million and write a check that would clear the bank, we’d sell,” he said.

The future of the church’s current buildings becomes more relevant every day as the church marches toward a mid-year opening of a new church on the Liberty University’s campus in Lynchburg.

The July 2 target date means only 147 more days until the current church buildings become ripe for new occupants.

So far, the church has received no suitable offer for the 200,000-square-foot facility, which has been home to Jerry Falwell Ministries for a half century.

Just because a new church is opening doesn’t mean Falwell is ready to abandon the old church at any cost.

“Leadership inside the church has expressed an interest in retaining ownership of the church for ministry purposes,” Falwell said. “At the moment, we’re leaning in that direction.”

With the explosive growth of Liberty University, building space is at a premium.

Essentially, Falwell can just reshuffle the deck at any time and find a suitable occupant for the current church buildings.

“The church leadership does not want to sell the buildings for less than they’re worth,” he said

Falwell said a Dallas group made an offer several months ago of $6.5 million, but wanted the church to act as the financier in a long-term land deal.

“The group would have made payments for a number of years,” Falwell said. “The church didn’t want to get into the banking business.”

The group wanted to convert the church buildings into housing for the homeless.

A pastor from another local church made a preliminary inquiry about the buildings, but has not returned to make an offer.

“He said he hadn’t talked about it with members of his church,” Falwell said.

Nearby Lynchburg College also flirted with the idea of buying some of the Thomas Road’s parking lots, but the church had no interest.

“We don’t want to split the property,” said Jerry Falwell Jr., Falwell’s son and LU’s vice chancellor.

Falwell Jr. said selling the parking lots would devalue the buildings.

“They wouldn’t meet code,” he said.

Lynchburg College President Ken Garren said the school has no immediate interest in buying the church buildings. Garren said the LC has more immediate building needs.

“At this point, we have nothing on the table as far as an offer,” he said.

Blanche Andrews, who lives near the church, said she would like to see LU use the building.

“The church was always quiet,” she said. “It didn’t bother anybody.”

Falwell Sr. said LU has already identified several possible uses for the current church’s buildings. If LU uses the current church buildings, it would purchase the buildings from the church.

One of those uses would be to convert the church’s sanctuary into a theater for LU’s drama department. The church’s current Pate Chapel would be turned into a recital hall.

Other buildings at the Thomas Road site would be used to house LU’s rapidly growing distance-learning programs.

If that shift were made, it would free about 50,000 square feet currently occupied by the distance-learning program in the former Ericsson Building, which is now LU’s North Campus.

“The move would allow the distance-learning program to grow by another 100,000 square feet,” Falwell Jr. said.

Ron Godwin, LU’s executive associate to the chancellor, said he expects “very aggressive growth” in the distance-learning program over the next several years.

“We’ll have 13,000 students this year,” he said. “We expect to double that in the next five years.”

As interest grows, the course offerings of the distance-learning program will likely expand.

“Our biggest challenge will be to offer more interactive courses online,” Godwin said.

The school received 30,000 calls last month to telephone numbers designated for those interested in distance-learning programs.

Falwell Sr., the school’s chief recruiter, has set a goal of 25,000 distance-learning students within the next 10 years.

“With more students, you need more faculty, more counselors, more business people and more registrars,” Falwell Jr. said. “It’s just like any other college, except the students don’t live on campus.”

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[Hold My Own]

hopefully Lynchburg College will step up

[Hold My Own]

Sly you remember when LU was in such bad debt and there were talks about LC and LU swapping campus'....it's funny when you look back to where we've come just within the last 10 years

[LUconn]

Well, I'm in the market for a new house actually. I'll have to check my bank account but barring any unforseen problem with that, I may have just found my place.

[Sly Fox]

I never heard talk of us switching campuses with LC. Back int he late '80s we nearly moved the campus to Atlanta and there was talk we would sell the campus to the Commonwealth of Virginia to pay off our debt. But thankfully that never came to fruition. LC never seemed to have much interest in being anything other than a little college in a Southern city full of Yankees looking for a cheaper education than they could afford in Jersey or wherever. Ambition was never LC's strong suit.

[PAmedic]

the whole distance learning thing intrigues me, but I need to figure out how it works. Can I finish my degree entirely online? Someone who knows how it works, or has gone thru the program let me know. (PM me)

[El Scorcho]

Hmmm. Can I rent it? Super Bowl party anyone?