LOGAN SQUARE — A historic 114-year-old church is officially up for sale in Logan Square — leaving the lot largely up for grabs.
Members of St. Luke’s Lutheran Church began reviewing broker proposals in April after 90 percent of the church voted in a straw poll to seek a new location. But the church’s next decision could determine whether the building is demolished or given a new lease on life in the neighborhood.
The neo-Gothic church, built starting in 1901 at 2649 N. Francisco Ave., features handcrafted glass windows that cast an amber glow inside the stone cathedral.
But it’s financially underwater, facing hundreds of thousands of dollars in deferred maintenance costs. While the church once had a congregation that numbered in the hundreds, it had shrunk to 12 members by 2006.
The church has seen a relative revival, with 60 to 70 attendees on any given Sunday, but the core congregation isn’t enough to support a building with such weighty costs, said St. Luke’s pastor, Erik Christensen.
Christensen said he’s focused on encouraging conversation that compels St. Luke’s members to “speak truthfully with each other” about the potential repercussions of a sale on the congregation and the community.
Christensen said members of the church and its real estate working group are setting a high bar for the future use of the property. The church has decided to cast a wide net in its request for broker proposals, but — as the church is a “property owned by the community,” he said — any sale will take into account the future impact on the neighborhood.
Though seven real estate brokers made it through the first round of the pending sale, factors such as the highest bid, the possible inclusion of affordable housing and community space, as well as the church remaining a house of worship are all being considered for the upcoming sale, Christensen said.
That list of seven real estate has been narrowed to one, LivingRoom Realty, and the church is expected to be listed for sale this summer.
The church has settled on Brad Miller of Bradford Miller Law to represent the church throughout the sale.
The St. Luke’s congregation plans to continue to provide space to its various local projects such as Theatre Y, community dinners and other services, and pending a move elsewhere in the community, the group will have to “live with this decision for decades to come,” Christensen said.
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