First Baptist Church Of Jacksonville Florida

First Baptist Church Abandons Plan To Sell Most Of Downtown Campus

Jacksonvilles First Baptist Church will not pursue its plan to sell a majority of its Downtown campus and consolidate to The Hobson Block as offers to buy its property dwindled amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

First Baptist Senior Pastor Heath Lambert announced the church leaderships decision Aug. 2 in a town hall meeting with the congregation.

Because of the change of the real estate market brought on by the COVID recession, I want to let you know very clearly that The Hobson Block plan is over. Were not talking about that anymore, Lambert said.

Lambert said in January six to eight large buyers were interested in the 11.29-acre property listed by CBRE Jacksonville. Those buyers ended communication after the onset of the pandemic in March.

The kind of uncertainly created by the pandemic makes all of these guys go away. We havent seen or heard from them in months, Lambert said.

Offers from other buyers within the last 30 days included smaller sections of the churchs Downtown real estate and were about 25% of the value brokers advised First Baptist to accept in January, Lambert said.

The pastor did not provide specific figures during the sermon-style town hall at the churchs Lindsay Memorial Auditorium.

Several weeks ago, when I received that information, I realized were up against a wall we cant get over, Lambert said.

The senior pastor did not elaborate Aug. 2 on what the plan is now for the churchs Downtown campus outside of the auditorium.

First Baptist Church Of Jacksonville

The First Baptist Church of Jacksonville is a Southern Baptistmegachurch in DowntownJacksonville, Florida, U.S. As of 2014, First Baptist Church has 28,000 members and an average attendance of around 3,000 for Sunday services. The main Downtown Campus comprises several square blocks of property connected by above-ground crosswalks. The campus includes several auditoriums for services, a Sunday school building, and facilities for First Baptist Academy, a private K-12 school.

First Baptist Church has its origins in the oldest Baptist congregation in Jacksonville, Bethel Baptist Church, established in 1838. The church experienced a period of considerable growth in the mid-20th century, eventually encompassing eleven square blocks of downtown Jacksonville. Several former pastors, including Homer G. Lindsay Jr. and Jerry Vines, were widely influential in the Southern Baptist Convention, leading it in both growth and a shift towards conservatism.

First Baptist’s Downsizing A Double

First Baptist Church of Jacksonville has long proclaimed its place in the center of the city, calling itself the “miracle of downtown” for a 181-year history that saw it grow into one of the nation’s largest congregations with a mega-church campus to show for it.

Going forward, First Baptist Church will continue to have an impact on downtown, but with a reverse effect.

When the church retrenches and shrinks its downtown footprint by almost 90 percent in the coming years, the fate of the chunk of downtown occupied by the church’s urban campus will either end up adding more vacant buildings to the Northbank of downtown, or open the way for a new wave of growth.

A college campus, a medical innovation hub or housing in the city’s quest for 10,000 downtown residents are among the ideas that have surfaced since First Baptist Church made its announcement on Sunday.

“Who is going to do what with the property is obviously of super-high interest,” said Jake Gordon, CEO of Downtown Vision, the nonprofit that represents downtown property-owners. “It’s a huge amount of property. It’s not every day that blocks and blocks of downtown property become available for redevelopment.”

Downtown Investment Authority CEO Lori Boyer sees promise in what can come after First Baptist Church downsizes.

She said the First Baptist Church property could fit the bill for a college campus, a medical “innovation hub,” or some other large-scale site that would use multiple blocks of property.

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Th Century To Present

The church did not fare well in the early 20th century. By 1940, First Baptist had accumulated a debt of $125,000 and saw its educational building repossessed by its creditors. That year, the church hired Homer Lindsay Sr. as their senior pastor. Under his leadership the church reversed its fortunes, and within a few years it paid off its debt, acquired a new education building, and grew its congregation. In 1969 First Baptist hired Lindsay’s son, Homer G. Lindsay Jr., as co-pastor he took over sole pastoral duties upon his father’s retirement in 1975. Under Lindsay Jr. the church experienced even faster growth, emerging as a megachurch with thousands of members and many new buildings, including a new 3,500-seat auditorium.

Jerry Vines joined Lindsay as co-pastor in 1982. First Baptist grew even further, becoming a major power in the Southern Baptist Convention and adding a 10,000-seat auditorium in 1993. Vines became a key leader in the growing Convention and was a major figure in its shift toward strict conservatism. Vines and First Baptist Church received national attention in June 2002 for Vines’ controversial statements regarding Islam. Lindsay died in 2000 and Vines retired in 2006 Mac Brunson was hired as senior pastor that year. Recent developments include the establishment of First Baptist Academy and of a satellite campus of the church in neighboring St. Johns County. Heath Lambert is the current senior pastor.

Business Master File Data

Below are some key data points from the Exempt Organization IRS Business Master File for this organization. Learn more about the BMF on the IRS website

Activities:

Other school related activities

Other religious activities

Foundation Status:

Church 170

Affiliation:

Subordinate – the organization is a subordinate in a group ruling.

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Data Sources: Irs Forms 990

The Form 990 is a document that nonprofit organizations file with the IRS annually. We leverage finance and accountability data from it to form Encompass ratings. .

Impact & Results

Not Currently Scored

FIRST BAPTIST CHURCH OF JACKSONVILLE FLORIDA INC cannot currently be evaluated by our Impact & Results methodology because either it is eligible, but we have not yet received data we have not yet developed an algorithm to estimate its programmatic impact its programs are not direct services or it is not heavily reliant on contributions from individual donors.

Note: The absence of a score does not indicate a positive or negative assessment, it only indicates that we have not yet evaluated the organization.

Jwb Buys Two City Blocks Downtown From First Baptist Church

The real estate company purchased the parking garage and the churchs former main auditorium for $8.39 million.

JWB Real Estate Capital bought two First Baptist Church of Jacksonville properties in Downtowns North Core for $8.39 million.

Property records show JWB subsidiaries bought two city blocks from First Baptist on June 24 a church auditorium at 119 W. Beaver St. for $2.3 million and a parking garage at 712 N. Hogan St. for $6.09 million.

The deeds were recorded June 29 with the Duval County Clerk of Courts.

JWB bought the Hogan Street site through 712 Hogan St N LLC and the Beaver Street property through 119 Beaver St W LLC. Each is 1.53 acres.

The deeds show the companies are based at JWBs corporate office at 7563 Philips Highway, Suite 208.

JWB President Alex Sifakis did not respond immediately to a request for comment June 29.

According to the Duval County Property Appraiser, the 119 Beaver St. auditorium, built in 1995, is 103,016 square feet.

First Baptist is selling property while it upgrades other facilities at its Downtown campus.

The church completed nearly $1.8 million in interior renovations in March 2021 to the 900-seat Lindsay Memorial Auditorium at 125 W. Ashley St. That is across the street from the auditorium it sold.

The parking garage was built in 1989, according to the property appraisers website.

Adam Rigel signed the mortgages. He is CFO and a partner in JWB Real Estate Capital.

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