Over the past six months, the Construction and Renovation Committee has moved forward
with the varied tasks necessary to begin work on the conversion of the two row houses into
four duplex apartments.
The new structure of the Construction and Renovation Committee was approved on April 16,
2018, which will accommodate planning the Committee’s three main focus areas, the
construction of the Duplex Apartments, the renovation of the 1st and 2nd floor of the Main
Church building and the alterations of the 1st and 2nd floor of the Williams building. Nelson
Melton will lead the effort to remodel the two row houses into duplex apartments, John Gass
will lead the effort for planning and updates to the main Church building, and Donna and Jim
Soyars will lead the work to add the new 1st floor entrance area for the Child Care function
and updates to the 2nd floor area of the Williams building.
During the past quarter, Jim Soyars undertook the replacement of the Church’s kitchen tile
floor, which was required by the City of Richmond’s health department. Also the air
conditioning system for the Child Care area had to be replaced. The addition of the new
childcare main entrance is projected to be completed just after the Labor Day holiday.
The Church’s Trustees, led by Kathy McGraw, have completed the legal documents which
allows for the transfer of the row house real estate properties to the two corporations, 1913
and 1915 Grove Avenue LLC. This transfer is necessary to allow for conversion of these two
properties into commercial rental property. Also during this time, the two Limited Liability
Corporations have been formed and await the transfer of these two properties, which will
occur after a special use permit is approved by City Council of Richmond.
Donna Soyars continues to work with Sean Hicks, attorney, who is the Church’s contact with
the City of Richmond to acquire the special use permit which allows for conversion of the
two row house properties from residential use into commercial use. This effort is moving
forward and requires first the approval of the Fan District Association before the City of
Richmond’s paperwork will proceed. Hopefully the special use permit will be approved by
the first of October, 2018 at which time re-construction of the two row houses will begin.
Nelson Melton
