Name:

Port City Community Church

Location:

Wilmington, North Carolina

Size:

91,000 SF

Architect:

Urban Design Architects, P.A.

Contractor:

Edifice, Inc.

The Challenge

Port City Community Church (PC3) has rapidly grown to a church of over 3,000 in the past nine years. They presently meet in a local middle school, a neighboring preschool building, a renovated night club, and have just initiated a video venue at a local movie theater. PC3 had initially wanted to re-purpose an existing light industrial building to serve as their interim home. Concurrently, some members of the church had secured a prime 32-acre parcel of land in Wilmington for their permanent location. PC3's challenge was multi-faceted: How can they continue to provide space for growth? Is the proposed interim location sufficient to answer the growth needs and does it make financial sense? How should they Master Plan the new site and how can they phase it to be wise stewards of this incredible property? How much can they afford to build?

Process

CCL worked with PC3 to help them answer the pressing questions that related to their facility needs. Our Strategic Planning services helped them recognize the proposed interim facility would not accomplish their growth needs and also consume a significant amount of their capital funds - ultimately accommodating less ministry space than they were presently utilizing. CCL developed a phased Master Plan for their new campus that would allow for growth and meet their ministry needs. Working alongside a talented, local Architect, we employed our experience and knowledge to help direct the design effort. CCL added value to the process by introducing several ideas that would shorten the length of construction schedule and reduce the costs without impacting aesthetics or quality. One example of this was utilizing tilt-wall construction to reduce the cost of the structure and accelerate the project's construction schedule. Once complete, CCL Project Development services worked with PC3 to select a General Contractor and align the construction budget and project schedule with the church's expectations. CCL worked with the Church to intensively model their projected financial growth and make critical decisions about the Church's funding capacity. The result was successfully placing the financing package for a $17M project for a Church that had not previously undertaken any facility construction.

The "Win"

From Strategic Planning services, Project Development services, and Project Management services, CCL partnered with PC3 to ensure the space and layout of the design supported their ministry needs, the Master Plan served their long-term vision of their ministry, the value was retained in the "value engineering" process, a realistic financial strategy was established and that the construction process adhered to its schedule and budget We have accomplished these functions while maintaining strong relationships with the project consultants and contractors.

 CCL helped us design and build what we really needed to do and what God has called us to do. They became far more than consultants -- they are a part of our team. I am certain we would not be where we are in our building process without them. They have saved us enormous time and money and I would not consider a project without them."

- Mike Ashcraft, Senior Pastor, PC3