ROGERS - A few years ago, Pastor Alan Johnson could more easily envision himself trading handshakes with members of his congregation than trading pieces of land with one of the city's high-profile development groups.
As land prices climb to new heights along the commercially charged Interstate 540 corridor, some unlikely characters have found themselves in the real estate game, including ministers, said Johnson, pastor of Rogers First Church of the Nazarene.
The congregation will hold a groundbreaking service for its new building Sunday on Pleasant Grove Road between Bellview Road and the future Pinnacle Hills Parkway extension, joining a growing trend of congregations relocating from older areas to southwest Rogers.
This location was finalized last week, when the church inked a land trade with the Pinnacle Group, the force behind buildings housing the Arkansas World Trade Center and the Pinnacle Hills Promenade.
The church originally purchased a site at the intersection of Perry Road and Pinnacle Hills Parkway in 2002, before the Embassy Suites and the Pinnacle Hills development had altered the landscape. When it became obvious that the area would take a largely commercial tone, the congregation took the Pinnacle Group up on an offer to relocate.
"We were really concerned about what kind of outreach we'd have," Johnson said of locating the church far from residential areas.
The property, which cost the church $ 70, 000 an acre, had risen to about 6 1 / 2 times its initial purchase value, Johnson said. The Pinnacle Group offered the church its new, larger 12. 5-acre site and a financial bonus, and offered to finance construction of 748 feet of the future Pinnacle Hills Parkway that will front the property. The bonus helped to cover the increase in construction costs that had occurred since the initial property purchase, which had risen from $ 5 million to around $ 9 million, Johnson said. Dealing with such large numbers and what had become a highly coveted piece of land was a sensitive process for the congregation, but the final agreement will mean good things for the church, he said.
"We didn't want to be greedy, and we didn't want to be unwise," Johnson said.
The church began exploring the feasibility of a move in 2001, when its sanctuary, located on Olive Street, only held 250 to 300 people, forcing the congregation to split into two services. When it became evident that the current 4. 5 acre lot wouldn't facilitate a reasonable expansion, church committees began seeking land all over the city - property ranging in price from $ 40, 000 to $ 110, 000 an acre. At purchase time, land in the Pinnacle Hills area was less expensive than property along Hudson Road, Johnson said. When the best piece of property was located on what was then the edge of town, some church members were resistant to the move, Johnson said. He reminded them that the when the Olive Street location was constructed in the 1960 s, the land was considered to be on the fringe of town.
At the time of the property's purchase, city planning staff, builders and architects predicted that more than 70 percent of the city's population would live southwest of the intersection of New Hope and Dixieland roads within the next 20 years, Johnson said.
"We had to say, ' Do we want to stay here while the whole city is going that way ?'"he said.
The new, colonial-style building will hold 675 people with the possibility of expanding to hold 410 additional people. The structure will also hold children's and youth ministry areas, a preschool and a gymnasium. Johnson hopes to celebrate the completion of the space by March 2008, just in time for Easter.
"A church is not a building; it's the people who make up the church," Johnson said. "Our primary focus is still ministry; the building just facilitates that."
John George, spokesman for the Pinnacle Group, said the advent of several large projects, such as the Pinnacle Hills Promenade and the John Q. Hammons Center, have forced the value of property in the Pinnacle Hills area skyward.
"It's been very apparent for the last 12 to 16 months that people who purchased property five to seven years ago probably have more value in it now than they did then," he said.
Because Interstate 540 serves as a link for the major northwest Arkansas cities, it also serves as an intensifier of development, he said.
"If there's land that doesn't have anything built on it yet on this side of the interstate, in 20 years, it won't be undeveloped land," he said.
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