Keep your land and get a new church home? The answer is yes.

The Wilks Law Firm would like to introduce Pastors and Board of Trustees board to an exciting alternative to the traditional joint venture for new church construction and community housing development. We have provided legal services to churches for many years. Unfortunately, over those years we have observed a landscape littered with failed traditional joint venture projects, led by incompetent or sometimes by predatory investors/developers. These failed projects resulted in the loss of church owned real estate accompanied by disastrous financial consequences. There is an alternative option for joint venture development projects available called the ground lease. This model has traditionally been used to finance commercial real estate projects such as office buildings, airports, stadiums, shopping malls, etc. When the ground lease is modified for application to church and community housing development it offers many benefits to the church, such as:

· The church retains ownership of its property, instead of selling it to a developer

· The church acquires a newly constructed and fully built out house of worship

· All expenditures, construction, legal and broker fees, etc. are paid for by the developer

· The church enjoys a steady stream of income for the duration of the lease (30 to 99 years) and at the end of the lease the church owns the structure built on the land

· Reduced dependency on your congregation’s offerings

· The steady income stream can support your outreach ministry as well as building out your technology platform

· It facilitates the development of affordable/mixed income community housing

The Wilks Law Firm provides broker and legal services for these projects and as has always been our practice, the firm engages a team of seasoned appraisers, lawyers and accountants working under the firms’ supervision. This team of professionals generates all of the filings and reports that are mandated, by law, for submission to the New York State Attorney General/Supreme Court for project approval.