Chapels for hire

Landmark buildings can more than pay for themselves through weddings and other functions.

Landmark buildings can more than pay for themselves through weddings and other functions.
Many Traditional Neighborhood Developments (TNDs) would like to have a beautiful chapel or meeting house as the focal point of their main drive. But what if no religious or civic organization is ready to build it? At The Waters, southeast of Montgomery, Alabama, developers Ed Welch and Dale Walker went ahead and built the Chapel Hill Meeting House as a community-oriented but privately owned structure.
The Meeting House cost $600,000 to construct, says Nathan Norris, marketing director of the 1,250-acre development. Its symmetrical, columned façade, culminating in a bell tower and steeple, is placed so that it terminates the view from one of the development’s principal streets, Chapel Hill Street.
The Waters, which will eventually have approximately 2,500 housing units in eight neighborhoods, already had numerous community amenities, including a boat house, fire pit, outdoor kitchen, playground, pool, beach, and tennis courts, not to mention a town square with corner market, bank, dentist and YMCA. “We would have had to wait a period of time if we wanted to deed the Meeting House to the homeowners association, the Waters Assembly,” Norris says. “Thus, we were happy to get it built now and have a private entity own it and rent it out.”
Designed by architect Gary Justiss of Chelsea, Alabama, the 3,400 sq. ft. Meeting House seats 267. “It is used for weddings and meetings of all sorts,” Norris says. “No church has held services there yet — it just opened at the end of September — but there is an expectation that they will start that up next year after they gain a better understanding of the possibilities.” A number of ministries may use it as a satellite location.
In the meantime, the owners rely principally on fees for weddings — $5,000 each. “That includes more than the Meeting House,” Norris points out. “It includes a certain amount of time with the wedding planners, a gigantic tent (it cost $60,000), rest rooms, reception area on the Crescent (our five-acre park overlooking Lake Cameron, the largest lake in the county), and the ability to have the reception at the boat house.”
“That was the intention — that wedding rentals would essentially finance its construction,” Norris says. “We expect approximately 15 weddings a year.” Rental rates for other uses such as business or civic meetings are very modest, he says, and residents pay less than nonresidents.
The Waters, which New Urban News toured early this year, contains a wide range of housing types that share a relaxed Southern architecture accented with front porches and galvanized metal roofs. Dwellings range from live-works and carriage houses to townhouses, mansions, and sideyard and courtyard houses. Prices have ranged from $158,000 to over $1.5 million.  Sales prices now go from $160/sq. ft. to over $200/sq. ft.
Scattered throughout the residential areas are “rambles” — small park-like areas, often placed to the rear of the houses and made accessible by narrow streets or alleys. The plan of The Waters, in the town of Pike Road, a municipality so small it has just one paid employee, was produced largely by PlaceMakers.
There are currently 100 occupied dwellings. Approximately 60 more are expected to be added each year.

Dressing up the neighborhood
Another TND that has opened a privately owned chapel this year is New Town at St. Charles, Missouri. Greg Whittaker, head of the development firm Whittaker Homes, says the 3,600 sq. ft. chapel seats 250 to 300 and cost between $1.7 and $1.8 million to build. Designed by Victor Barrett of Scottsdale, Arizona, the chapel was expensive because of features such as twin towers, a limestone exterior, and Venetian stucco on the interior.
“We wanted to have a special, lasting place at New Town,” Whittaker says. The chapel, which began operating last summer, is already booked for weddings through the end of 2008. The fee for weddings is about $1,200 to $1,500, depending on time and day. The fee will eventually rise to $2,000, according to Whittaker.
“We book at least two weddings on Saturday and a total of four on each weekend,” he says. Lutherans worship there on Sundays, and other functions take place on weekdays. The chapel is near New Town’s first neighborhood center. “It’s nice having [the chapel] as an activity center,” Whittaker says, noting that it brings in “people who are dressed up,” some of whom generate business for other businesses at New Town, such as a nearby pub.
The towers provide inconspicuous spots to install equipment of four cellular telephone companies, each company paying $2,000 a month. Whittaker expects the chapel to start producing a profit within two years.

Earlier examples
In September 2002, New Urban News reported that at Haile Village Center in Gainesville, Florida, developer Robert Kramer had built a town hall that rented out for weddings at a rate of $750 for four hours and $250 for each additional hour. The facility, Plantation Hall, was also available for business meetings and was used by a church. Kramer said Plantation Hall had a construction cost of $100 a square foot — the highest of any building in Haile Village — primarily because of features such as commercial utility systems and high ceilings.
The hall was being operated on a break-even basis in 2005, when the developer sold it and a number of other buildings in the Village Center. It is now operated by Angela Renick of A`vie Inc., an event planning business, which charges $800 plus tax on Monday through Thursday, $1,300 on Friday and Saturday, and $1,000 on Sunday. If the renter wants a sound package, including sound system, wireless microphone, DVD player, and video system, an additional $250 is charged.
Norris says other TNDs that have meeting houses or chapels include Seaside, Gorham’s Bluff, Village of Providence, Blount Springs, Village of West Clay, and Baxter Village. Most of those buildings do not take the form of a chapel. In addition, a number of TNDs have full-fledged churches, most of which are owned by their congregations.