With congregation numbers dwindling over the last few years, the United Church is now being sold due to a lack of funds.
The Westlock United Church has put the building on 100 Ave. up for sale by tender, managed by Lennon Barlow Keyes Barristers and Solicitors, with the deadline for offers set on Nov. 15.
“Our congregation is getting older and the young people aren’t coming out to support us. The short story is we’re no longer bringing in enough money to support the building,” said the United Church board of trustees chair Brian Trueblood.
Over the last two years, the congregation has attempted to find some community use for the building or access funds for a capital project to help maintain it, but they weren’t able to find a partner whose needs matched their own.
Regarding the method of sale, Trueblood says it seemed like a reasonable option, a method which they’re trying for now since most of the realtors in town deal with residential and commercial properties.
Michael MacIntyre, who is handling the sale at Lennon Barlow Keyes, explained that the process means all submitted bids will be opened Nov. 15.
“The seller will then choose from among the tenders an acceptable one to sell to, or they might find that none are acceptable and choose not to sell,” he said.
There are multiple variables which can contribute to what the congregation might find acceptable or not, from the price offered to financing restrictions, explained MacIntyre, but they are not restricted to the price-based model at all, having the option to reject a potential buyer based on values too.
“It’s a way of trying to sell a property. The most traditional way … is to hire a real estate agent. The next most common is to try to sell your property yourself through your own forms of advertising. And then there are other marketers that have a fee instead of a commission rate. The tender process is relatively inexpensive,” he added.
“We’ve acted on the sales of church properties before, what we’ll call the convincing aspect that lawyers do. We’ve never attempted to sell a church by the tender process before. Basically, it’s primarily farmland that we’ve had experience with the tender process.”
There are no restrictions to the potential buyer’s interest in the property, but Trueblood does hope they would want to make use of the current building, which was originally built in sections starting in 1928. Both Trueblood and MacIntyre know of church buildings in Westlock which have been turned into houses, for example.
As for where the church members will be gathering once the building is sold, Trueblood says it’s undetermined but they have decided to keep going as a congregation.
“A couple of possibilities (are) maybe renting some space or there are other United Church congregations around, there’s one at Hazel Bluff, there’s one at Jarvie and Pickardville is still active. We are hoping to keep our congregation going though,” said Trueblood.
