This Sunday Eagles Nest Church of Roswell, Georgia will welcome parishioners into its new ~80,000 square foot church building for the very first service.
The ~4,000 member church recently completed the first phase of its $28 MM Project SOAR 3.0 to convert the building from its previous use:
As a Kohl’s KSS 0.46%↑ department store.
For Eagles Nest Church the repurpose former Big Box retail store means more than the establishment of a new place of worship or the return of a vacant property back to a productive use.
Instead it represents a new type of church campus that is not centered on weekly services but as a community gathering spot and destination for a variety of uses.
The repurposed former Kohl’s building now includes a large auditorium with seating for more than 1,000 people.
It is expected to host not only church services but also weddings, graduations, conferences and concerts.
In fact much of the space in the repurposed building will be used for activities that are not directly related to the church.
That is one reason why a rezoning was not required to repurpose the building.
It also means that the property will still be subject to real estate taxes despite the building’s new use as a church-owned religious institution.
Not all of the space will be in use initially—and there are future plans to add dining options, a children’s daycare facility and other functions.
But first Eagles Nest Church will hold a “CrossOver” celebration this weekend to complete the transition of the building from retail to religion.
Or, in other words, to take it “from Kohl’s to souls.”
More Megachurches—And Demand For Larger Real Estate
The adaptive reuse by Eagles Nest Church of the former Kohl’s building is certainly unique.
But it is not original as many other Big Box retail properties have also been repurposed as churches.
That is due in part to the fact that congregations are growing ever larger.
There are now over 1,800 “megachurches”—defined as churches with 2,000 or more members—in the United States.
And as their membership grows, these megachurches often need bigger facilities.
This includes real estate—like former Big Box retail buildings—that has not traditionally been used for churches.
While there are no definitive statistics on the number of church buildings that are the product of Big Box adaptive reuse, it is likely in the hundreds—at least.
For instance more than 40 of the 3,000 Kmart buildings that closed over the past few decades have been repurposed as churches.
Other Big Box retail buildings formerly occupied by Home Depot HD 0.46%↑ , Sports Authority and Toys R Us have also been repurposed for church use.
Several of these Big Box-to-church adaptive reuse examples are highlighted below:
A Home Depot-turned-Church and Community Center in Rocky Mount, NC
Word Tabernacle Church converted the former 125,000 square foot Home Depot store in Rocky Mount, North Carolina into a church and community center.
The building was renovated to include an auditorium and chapel as well as areas dedicated for literacy, career planning, health & wellness.
Other sections of the building were repurposed into a media & broadcast area, a fitness center, and a culinary arts and hospitality training.
From Sporting Goods-Anchored Shopping Center to Church Campus in Orlando, FL
A former Sports Authority in Orlando found religion.
Or perhaps religion found it.
In any event, the former Big Box retail building and adjacent shopping center are now home to the 4,000 member Discovery Church’s central Orlando campus.
Discovery raised the building’s roof and installed a state-of-the-art audio-visual system and LED video wall in its new 1,100 seat auditorium.
A café, classrooms and a youth sanctuary were also added as part of the adaptive reuse of the property.
A Former Toys R Us Provided a West Virginia Church With More Family Space
By 2018 the Centerbranch Church in Bridgeport, West Virginia had outgrown its existing space which was then spread across three different buildings.
It wanted room for a larger sanctuary and more areas for children—including an indoor playground.
And what better building to accommodate additional family space than a 47,000 square foot former toy store?
Not only that but the Toys R Us building was also in a more central location for its congregants, highly visible and conveniently located at a highway exit.
So just one year after Toys R Us closed for good, Centerbranch Church acquired its building on a pad site of Bridgeport’s Meadowbrook Mall for ~$2 MM.
It then completed a $3 MM renovation of the former toy store into its new church building.
An Early Kmart Site May Have Been One of First Big Box-to-Church Conversions
The first 18 Kmart stores in the U.S. opened in 1962 and ~1/3 of these stores were in Kmart’s home state of Michigan.
Including the Kmart at the intersection of Plymouth Road and what was then the new M-39 Freeway in the City of Detroit.
Kmart ultimately closed this Detroit store in 1997.
But shortly afterward the New Providence Baptist Church reoccupied the 100,000 square foot building.
Over the years New Providence’s member count has grown from a few hundred to approximately 4,000.
And it has continued to grow into and utilize additional portions of the former Kmart building which now includes a gymnasium, classrooms, conference rooms and a banquet facility.
Additionally, a large portion of the building is now comprised of Detroit Innovation Academy, a Public Charter School with 350 students from kindergarten to 8th grade.
Eagles Nest Grew Large Enough To Fill Kohl’s Building
For Eagles Nest Church the converted Kohls building in Roswell, Georgia is the culmination of the ~15 year old church’s growth and transformation.
The church’s first services in 2012 were attended by a small group and held in a hotel ballroom.
Eagles Nest later moved to larger venues: first to an office building, then a family entertainment center and, most recently, a high school auditorium and gym.
Along the way the church picked up thousands of members and quickly outgrew each of its previous spaces.
However the repurposed former Kohl’s building will now provide the space needed for church members to worship, gather and grow into the future.
**See original article on Substack by clicking here. **
By Jason Miller.
