An Update on the Basement

If you’ve been downstairs at the Park Church building in the last year, you’ve noticed the plastic sheeting, the scaffolding, and the bare concrete. If you’ve asked yourself, “What’s going on here?” or, more likely, “What’s going on here and why is it still like this?”, this overdue update is for you.

What happened?

In late 2020, the lowest level of our basement—previously used extensively for classes, events, and minstries—was flooded when a sewer backed up. Everything below the Park Kids area was impacted, requiring walls and flooring to be removed before a full restoration could begin.

At first, it felt like an opportunity to improve the space. We designed a new floor plan, factored in the addition of an elevator for the rest of the building, and dreamt about rebuilding the event space into something for the broader community. Soon it became obvious that a larger giving campaign would be required to make this renovation possible. Additionally, the removal of asbestos in the flooring was loosely equivalent to money received from insurance.

Over the next year, a series of staff transitions happened (causing the project to change hands three times), our budget saw reductions, and a new event space with a significant giving campaign seemed less and less like the right thing to invest in. Now it’s late 2022, this has taken longer than we’d hoped, but we’re ready to get back to this project.

What’s the plan now?

Over the summer, we developed a simpler plan with a simpler goal: make the basement usable again. This looks like a fast, simple, and economical restoration. At some point in the future we may pursue a larger redevelopment of the space, but we don’t want to wait on the viability of that before we take down the plastic and regain use of the room.

How can you help?

Do you own or are you connected to a contracting business in drywall, millwork, trim, flooring, doors, or painting? We’re in the process of getting bids and would love recommendations from within our church body.

If that’s you, please contact John Petterson, Director of Operations, at john@parkchurch.org. We look forward to gathering with you in this space again.