Renovating of our New Student Center

Wilshire Ave purchased the property located at 302 and 306 N. Pomona (previously the Berkeley School of the Arts) in 2014 through generous donations during the Imagine Capital Campaign. For the next 2 years, the church rented the property to the Berkeley School before it closed its doors in 2016. These two buildings, and the surrounding patio, will be our new North Campus.

Recent work parties have cleared the way for major renovations to begin on the two buildings. The building located at 306 N. Pomona is the site of our future Student Center.

With literally hundreds of students walking past our property every day, we are excited to dream about the endless opportunities we have to reach students with our new Student Center. It will provide a fun and safe place for junior and senior high students to hang out together and for our Student Ministries team to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

Acquiring New Property

In May 2017, Wilshire Ave. Community Church entered into a partnership with a Christian investment group with family ties affiliated to a member of the church (Scampers Properties, LLC) to purchase the properties outlined below. An initial fundraising raised approximately $200,000 allowing the church to contribute 12.5% of the total funds needed with Scampers Properties purchasing the other 87.5%. As part of the agreement, Scampers agreed to hold the properties until such time as the church is able to raise the remainder of the funds needed to own the two lots. If we are to raise the remaining $1.4 million by the end of 2018, Scampers has agreed to use the original purchase price of $1.6 million. After that time, our purchase price will be based on true market value.

A brief summary is as follows:

• Total Cost of the Two Lots: $1,600,000.00
• Number of units: 6 units consisting of: 3 – studio apartments with 1-car garages; 1 – 2 bedroom/1 bathroom house; 1 – 3 bedroom/3 bathroom house; and, 1- 1 bedroom/1 bath apartment above garage, carport and laundry facility
• Annual Net Income: Approximately $100,000.00

With the proceeds of these properties, we envision several Kingdom Building opportunities such as church planting, additional support for our missionaries, and other community outreach opportunities.

Helping WA Become Debt Free

In 2000, our church committed to a capital campaign that was named, ”Building Up” – during which we made major renovations to our Multi-Purpose Room (gym), Underground Lounge and Worship Center. The initial quotes for the renovations came in at approximately $1.5 million. As is true for most renovations of older buildings, once walls began to be opened up, it was quickly realized the scope of the job was much bigger than anyone anticipated thus pushing the actual cost of renovations to $3 million. The three-year capital campaign brought in commitments of $1.5 million forcing the church to take out a mortgage loan to cover the remaining $1.5 million of renovations. The mortgage debt slowly was paid down by the generosity of church members who continued to give above and beyond their normal tithe for the next 10 years after the “Building Up” campaign had come to an end.

In 2013 the church launched its next Capital Campaign, “Imagine”. Through the Imagine Campaign, we were able to purchase the Berkeley School property with $500,000 cash, invest in some major projects on our current facility, and pay off nearly $600,000 of the mortgage debt. Since the end of the Imagine Campaign in 2015, we have continued to pay off over $100,000/year for the last 2 years bringing our total debt down to $380,000.

One of our key goals with Legacy is to make the final push to pay off the remainder of this mortgage debt so that future generations will be free of debt.