Christ Covenant Buckhead Corporation has submitted plans to turn an almost 50,000-square-foot industrial building in the Armour Yards area into a new church, according to a special administrative permit application filed with the city of Atlanta last month.
The existing property, which is at 221 Armour Dr., is under contract to be purchased by Christ Covenant, a growing Atlanta church, according to Bradley Fulkerson, a senior managing director with Transwestern, the brokerage and development consultant for the project. The warehouse property was acquired by TAC Armour Ottley LLC, a company registered to asset management firm The Ardent Companies, for about $6.16 million in 2019, according to Fulton County property records.
Plans call for revamped building to serve as a new permanent church location for Christ Covenant, which launched in 2017 and currently meets at the Stave Room in Buckhead Atlanta’s Armour Yards commercial district. The church expects to need $15 million in financing for the project, including $9.4 million to purchase the building and about $5 million to renovate it, according to its website. It is looking to raise $4 to $6 million in cash and pledges.
“From the beginning, we’ve been blessed with rental spaces all over our city and we’ve had many of them,” Christ Covenant Senior Pastor Jason Dees said in a video about the church’s plans.
“This has been a discussion of Christ Covenant for some time, but the leadership of our church has made a unified decision that now is the time for our church to purchase a stable ministry space for our worship, for our ministries, so that disciple-making can go forward and that we can continue to impact Atlanta and the world for Christ.”
Project plans call for a renovation of the building’s front facade and entrance area, replacing a loading dock and service area with a front porch, handicapped ramping, and a vehicular drop-off area, according to the applicant’s SAP documents. Streetscape improvements to match the adaptive reuse project are also planned.
The new church building would hold an 880-seat auditorium, lounge space, and space for The Collective, a part of the church that offers coworking space, among other features, plans show.
Transwestern’s Atlanta Tenant Advisory Team has been representing Christ Covenant in its search for a permanent home, while the project architect is Cooper Carry.
The adaptive reuse project is one of several in Buckhead’s Armour Yards commercial district.
“Christ Covenant Church is delighted to be joining the current tenants and property owners in the Armour Yards submarket,” Fulkerson emailed What Now Atlanta. “Armour Yards offers a unique urban environment with a variety of uses and amenities from office and retail to warehouse.”
Construction at 221 Armour Drive is scheduled to begin in the third quarter of this year for occupancy in the second quarter of next year, according to Fulkerson.