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The striking and historic First Church of Christ, Scientist building at the corner of Bryant Street and Forest Avenue in downtown Palo Alto will be preserved and turned into office space after being sold to Embarcadero Capital Partners, a Peninsula company that owns other downtown Palo Alto properties.
The 11,000-square-foot building was constructed in 1916 and designated a historic structure by the city in 1978. It hasn’t been used for weekly church services since 2006 when First Church of Christ, Scientist, merged with the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, and began holding services in the latter’s church on Cowper Street in south Palo Alto.
The church membership voted to sell the Bryant Street church building.
“Embarcadero Capital Partners is very excited about this acquisition,” company principal John Hamilton told the San Francisco Business Times. “ECP only invests in assets with value-add opportunities. (The church) is a one-of-a-kind building that will be a prestigious home to Silicon Valley companies in the near future.”
— Don Kazak
By
— Don Kazak
By
— Don Kazak
By
We have plenty of unoccupied office space around town, what makes ECP think that this one will get tenants? I foresee that with Facebook moving at least in part, there will be even more available in downtown. Even the new office complex on the former site of Scotts Restaurant on Embarcader appears to be completely empty.
Better office space than more high density housing.
A bold move, considering the available space they already have.
I hope this will be maintained in a historical manner.
Embarcadero Capital Partners properties in Palo Alto site…
http://www.ecp-llc.com/property/by_sub_market/2
Too bad the city didn’t have the vision to buy (or lease) it as a community center/auditorium. We need one in this part of town, and it would have been ideal.
I think a downtown community center and auditorium is the best use for the property – close to downtown, next to the civic center – what could be better. I remember the New Varsity Theatre, now converted to a Borders bookstore – what a loss that was to the community.
It’s exciting to see a building once used for basically delusional celebration being used for a productive purpose and contributing to our tax base.
Hopefully as we become more educated and enlightened more churches will be sold for secular needs.
By the way, I’ve been wondering why there is no picketing in front of the Mormon church after their shameful prop-8 support. I’m out of state right now, but if I get back soon, I’ll be out there.
Actually, many Churches in Palo Alto and elsewhere are very active community centers. The amount of things going on in our Churches are amazing, with community and charitable events as well as the spiritual events one would expect. They are not Sunday morning only buildings.
That’s all very nice, but the money from at least the property taxes would be much greater than what they spend, and can be used for the same purposes and more.
And I don’t see why volunteering has to be based on religion, which is divisive and unproductive.
Also, churches have a conflict of interest when sponsoring community programs, since their bottom-line is attracting converts.
Alex
You appear to have a very poor opinion of Churches, the people who attend them, the community work that they do and the volunteers that operate them. Perhaps you should visit one sometime and discover that on the whole, Church people are usually wonderful, helpful, loving people and will not try to convert you unless you are asking questions that show you are interested in being converted. Most activities will just welcome you, regardless of what you think of them.
Resident
My elementary school was Our Lady of the Rosary. I’m Italian and know the greatness religion has contributed to society. Times change.
The point is, you take up too much space on expensive land for the benefits you provide the community. And your programs, as I stated, are tainted by the inherent conflict of interest.
“It’s exciting to see a building once used for basically delusional celebration being used for a productive purpose and contributing to our tax base.”
Not so fast there, alex. It’s not the churches that are begging for those billions in government handouts.
Yes, I know churches pay no taxes, and I think that should change. But who is costing the taxpayers more – the Christian Science church or AIG?
Hey Alex-
You sound like you need a vacation!
If a church or spiritual institution is sitting on expensive land it is either because it was there before it was expensive lands (in which case it was a good investment for the spiritual community), or because some members of the community felt it was worth having one there and were willing to pay for it. I’m not sure why you would object to either one of these. It was those people’s choice, not yours. Why would you object to them spending their money any way they see fit?
I probably used to feel somewhat like you a few years ago, but have now spend a fair bit of time with several Buddhist spiritual communities, and it has opened me up quite a bit…even to the point where I respect the Christian communities too (though you will never catch me believing in a god 😉 ).
I think anyone that has spend a bit of time in one of these communities learns that no one converts anyone. If someone “converts” it is his own choice and not anyone else’s. It sounds like a few to many Jehovah’s Witnesses have rung your doorbell and you resent them for doing it. To be honest, holding that resentment in your mind is not good for you…it is a waste of your energy. No one should be asking you to believe anything that doesn’t work for you, but there are a lot of people that gain a lot of benefit from being part of a spiritual community, and there are a lot of spiritual communities that don’t go door-to-door, but just do a modest amount of advertising and word-of-mouth (aka talk to our friends) promotion. I guess it is a shame you have so much pent-up aversion for all spiritual institutions because of your issues with one or two.
Just consider: you do not know the future. Tomorrow you may find out you are diagnosed with terminal cancer. If this happens you will have a big struggle on your hands. You may be able to handle it on your own, or maybe you family and friends will be sufficient, but many people get help from a spiritual community when things like this happen to them … and this help is freely given … to whoever comes whether they chose to believe anything or not … . Why do you want to deny other people this opportunity?
> you take up too much space on expensive land for the
> benefits you provide the community
This could be easily solved–take away the tax deductions for religious organizations.
> Too bad the city didn’t have the vision to buy (or lease)
> it as a community center/auditorium.
The city (and lamo Berne Beecham) claimed that Measure N would provide millions for libraries–which Beecham claimed were community centers.
So .. the taxpayers are now on the hook for untold millions to pay for Beecham’s fantasy.
Burn, baby:
I’m no fan of Beecham’s but pointless non-sequiturs don’t make the case. Besides, he’s no lamo, he’s a has-been, at least where the city council’s concerned. But he’s still a politician, so whatever he says must be parsed in that context. In this case he was puffing to sell Measure N. Usually he fronts for local developers, so there may be more to this item than fantasy. Stay vigilant.
Some people actually SUPPORTED prop 8. I personally did. I don’t see it as a denial of Civil rights. I just see marriage as a classic institution between a man and a woman. We don’t have enough classic institutions left standing anymore. I believe that gay couples in a civil union should have all the rights of a traditionally married couple. I actually think that straights cohabitating for more than 7 years (we have no common law marriage in this state) are getting more screwed out of benefits than gay partners; a lot of cities now provide for the gay partnerships, but NOT for people living together without marriage.
In this state, we register our vehicles. When we do, they are registered as the type of vehicle they are. Truck registration, car registration, motorcyle registration and so on. We have licenses for different classes of drivers as well. I would not go register my Prius and whine that I want it registered as a truck. In registering my Prius I would have all the same ‘benefits and rights’ as that of the person registering their truck, it’s simply in a different category.
All people should have the right to legalize their unions, but to me at least, it is important that we maintain a classic, if not vintage, institution.
Well said, Youshouldknow…
Church is realy in your hearts if you have the desire to believe in JUSUS CHRIST, but If think you need a building for it you are so wrong. Try reading the book of Matthew in your Bible.