Chandler OKs church issuing $5M in bonds

Feb 9, 2010 — East Valley Tribune

Ari Cohn

Feb. 9, 2010 (McClatchy-Tribune Regional News delivered by Newstex) -- Chandler officials are considering an agreement that would authorize a fundamental Baptist church to issue $5 million of tax-exempt bonds to finance a religious school and college.

The city's Industrial Development Authority gave the deal its blessing in a unanimous vote Tuesday morning, said Dennis Strachota, city management services director.

"The Industrial Development Authority is the conduit for the bond issue that the church will do," Strachota said.

Prayer services and classes at Tri-City Baptist Church's college and graduate school began last summer at a new $21.5 million campus on a more than 13-acre site southwest of Dobson and Germann roads.

It took about seven years to complete the campus, which includes the church, a missionary effort and schooling for students from preschool through high school.

The campus also will be home to the International Baptist College, which is accredited with the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools, and dorms to house up to 110 college students, church representatives have said.

The church, which counts about 750 people as members of its congregation, espouses a conservative religious credo, including a literal interpretation of the Bible.

Strachota said the City Council in two weeks is slated to consider whether to authorize Tri-City to use the city's tax-exempt authority to issue the bonds, most of which would be used to refinance a previous construction loan to get a lower interest rate.

About $500,000 would go toward building modular classrooms in the site's southwestern quadrant, near the public Chuparosa Park, he said.

Strachota said such bonds can be used to fund education, health care and low- and moderate-income housing. The church is considered a nonprofit, and its educational arm qualifies for the tax exemption, he said.

"The (U.S.) Supreme Court has ruled over time that church-run schools are eligible as not-for-profits," he said.

Tri-City Church moved to Chandler from its former site in Tempe, at Price Road and Southern Avenue. The Tempe site, which the church had occupied for nearly 40 years, sold for $7 million last year to a charter school.

About 40 college students were expected to call the dorms home in the first semester, church officials have said. Additional dorms and a 16,000-square-foot college and seminary building are planned over the next several years.

The church and its educational branch were founded by Pastor James Singleton in response to the "negative direction of public education in America," according to the church's Web site.

All told, the college is expected eventually to attract up to 250 college students, 450 grade-school students, and up to 80 preschoolers. College tuition and room and board run about $13,000 per student a year, with tuition for grade-school students about $4,000 a year.

Other features at the campus include a 1,000-seat auditorium for church services and performances, a large basketball gym, and a 70,000-book library. Toward the back of the campus is a large field with stadium lighting, abutting Chuparosa Park, where the church plans to form a children's soccer league.

Much of the funding for the new campus came from contributions of parishioners, in donations of $10,000 to $20,000, church officials have said. Michael Sproul, senior pastor, has said he donated $125,000 by flipping a house when the market was booming and donating the proceeds to the church. He and other members give up to 30 percent of their incomes to the church.

Newstex ID: KRTB-0132-41935570