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© 2012 Dow Jones & Company. All Rights Reserved. THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, December 14, 2012 |M1

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RELIGIOUSCONVERSIONSAs congregations shrink, more churches are selling properties to residential developers. High ceilings andstained glass create ambience, but aging buildings make going from God’s house to townhouse a challenge.

WHEN COLIN BODELL moved into a new 3,000-square-foot condo in Seattle’s Capitol Hill neighborhood in Au-gust, he was looking forward to living with its 30-footceilings, polished-marble floors and 20-foot-tall stained-glass windows. One thing he didn’t anticipate, however,was people knocking on his front door to ask what timeservices were or to speak to the pastor.

“People still thought it was a church because of its ex-

terior,” says Mr. Bodell, a 50-year-old technology execu-tive at Amazon. “They didn’t realize it had been trans-formed into a home.”

Mr. Bodell’s apartment, which he bought for about $1million, sits inside a former Christian Science Church thatwas converted into 12 townhouses earlier this year and re-named the Sanctuary.

The building is one of a number of church-to-home lux-ury conversions popping up around the country. As doz-ens of churches close or move to different quarters eachyear, they’re finding second lives as condo developments

and townhouses.The conversion process is growing more common as

shrinking congregations and shifting demographics havemade it difficult for some congregations to stay afloat fi-nancially. According to a March report from CoStar Group,a real-estate research firm, 138 church-owned propertiesacross the country were sold by banks last year, comparedwith 24 three years earlier.

The Roman Catholic Church, for example, has closedhundreds of churches in recent years. In 2000, there were

PleaseturntopageM6

BY LAUREN SCHUKER BLUM

MOVING INTOTHE CORNER PUB

Arec room in the beer cellar? Londoners are not amused

THE PHENE ARMS, a traditionalback-street pub, has been catering tothe thirsty of Chelsea, in fashionablewest London, since 1851. DylanThomas, Agatha Christie and MickJagger are among the luminaries whohave crossed its threshold.

But after more than 160 years, itmay soon find itself catering to amuch smaller clientele—say, awealthy family of four.

The owners of the Phene Arms—property tycoon Robert Bourne andhis wife, theater impresario SallyGreen—have applied to convert theold public house into a private home,complete with a swimming pool,steam room and sauna in what iscurrently the beer cellar. A final rul-ing on the project from the govern-ment’s planning authorities is ex-pected in early 2013.

All over prime central London, de-velopers responding to rising prices

and seemingly insatiable demand forlandmark residential properties areturning to the local pub, that quintes-sential British institution, and a nicepiece of real estate at that.

“Pubs can be converted into verystylish, characterful homes as theyoften have interesting interior fea-tures such as carved doors, stainedglass, and large cellars which can beconverted into spacious basements,”says Alex Michelin, co-founder ofboutique developer Finchatton.

Mr. Michelin is currently at workconverting the Grouse & Claret publichouse in London’s pricey Belgraviasection into a 10,500-square-foot, six-bedroom house with a movie theater,gymnasium, roof terrace, and a swim-ming pool in the old cellar. Homes ofthis scale in the area can sell for upto $48 million, according to govern-ment property records.

PleaseturntopageM8

BY RUTH BLOOMFIELD

FROM ROCK STARSTO REAL ESTATEHow a onetime muse to

Jimi Hendrix became a topConnecticut broker. M5

‘I find I never weary of great churches.It is my favorite kind of mountain scenery.’

—Robert Louis Stevenson

TEMPLE TRANSFORMED A former synagogue in Manhattan’s East Village. MODERN LOOK The stained-glass windows were preserved when renovating a former church in Utrecht, Netherlands.

A NEW SANCTUARYA former Christian ScienceChurch in Seattle was dividedinto 12 townhouses.

The Fettler & Firkin pub near Paddington Station, built in 1841 as the Queens RailwayTavern, was converted to apartments after closing in 2009. A contemporary one-bedroom, third-floor flat in the building is now for rent for about $3,025 a month.

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M6 | Friday, December 14, 2012 THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. THEWALL STREET JOURNAL. Friday, December 14, 2012 |M7

MANSION

19,236 Roman Catholic parishesacross the U.S.; that figure fell to17,644 by 2012, according to the Cen-ter for Applied Research in the Apos-tolate, a nonprofit research organiza-tion that compiles church statistics.United Methodists have seen thenumber of churches shrink by about7% over the past decade or so, with300 to 400 churches closing or merg-ing each year. In 2000, United Meth-odists had 35,537 churches, compared

ContinuedfrompageM1 with 33,069 in 2011.The Seattle church where Mr.

Bodell now lives was built around1908 as First Church of Christ, Scien-tist, and counted about 800 regularattendees in its heyday. But by 2006,its congregation had dwindled toabout 25 people, so the congregationrelocated and sold off the churchproperty for $1.3 million.

Architects have found creativeways to convert these historic build-ings—which often have 40- or 50-

foot-high ceilings, few or no interiorwalls and stained-glass windows—into homes and apartments that willsell for millions of dollars.

But it isn’t an easy process: Notonly do the structures need inten-sive interior reconstruction and up-grades to meet modern buildingcodes, but they often have beengranted landmark status, furthercomplicating renovations.

“The good news with churches isthat you have 40-foot-tall ceilings,

but the bad news is that you have40-foot ceilings,” says ContinuumCo. chief executive and developerIan Bruce Eichner, who in the early1980s renovated an 1846 Greek Re-vival-style church in Manhattan’sGreenwich Village to create 15 co-opunits. “And because churches areusually landmarks, you can’t changethe facade,” he adds. Most big ur-ban renovations cost about $10 mil-lion and can take two to four years,or in the case of the Seattle project,

about $12 million over a five-yearperiod.

In the Boston area, more than adozen churches have been con-verted to residential projects overthe past decade or so. That’s in partbecause there has been a steadysupply. The Archdiocese of Bostonclosed 76 parishes in the metro areaunder a 2004 consolidation plan,selling 38 of those for just over $73million. (To signify that a church isno longer a church, the archbishop

signs a decree that relegates thebuilding to “profane use.”)

One of the churches closed was aTudor-style church called St. Aidan’sin Brookline, Mass., where John F.Kennedy and Robert Kennedy wereboth baptized. It reopened in 2009as a residential project. The church’sstone facade and slate roof werepreserved, but the interior wallswere reframed to support two addi-tional floors. The church was con-verted into nine high-end condounits that each sold for between $1million and $1.8 million.

Many of the units in St. Aidan’shave two-story windows, granitecountertops and double-height livingrooms with overlooking balconies.Some units also have exposed woodentrusses from the church as well as thechurch’s original dentil molding.

Those rarefied architectural detailsare a major attraction for many occu-pants of church-to-home conversions.Shankar Sundaram, 34, a researchengineer for Boeing, recently movedinto a 2,900-square-foot, two-bed-room townhouse in the former Chris-tian Science church in Seattle withhis fiancée. “We figured that a placewould hold its value more if it wasunique, like a piece of art,” he says.“And it’s pretty hard to replicate a100-year-old church.”

Mr. Sundaram and his fiancée loveto entertain in their four-story town-house, which has 35-foot-high ceil-ings. The dining table sits underneathtwo 20-foot-tall stained-glass win-dows. “It’s the perfect space to playmusic,” he says of the space. “What-ever you play sounds like it’s live, likeyou’re in a concert hall as opposed tolistening through a stereo.”

In the guest bedroom, there’s askylight that looks onto the church’smain stained-glass dome. The coupleinstalled an electric blind over theskylight so they can surprise guestswith it when they visit.

People who live in church conver-sions say that they easily find uses forsome of the more unusual artifacts.Automotive executive Bob Jensen andhis wife bought a converted 1920sPresbyterian church in 2007. It’s nowa 3,463-square-foot home 20 minutesoutside Denver. They say that theirfour granddaughters like to come overand ring the steeple bell, pulling arope hanging in the home’s foyer. “Wehave a tradition of ringing it on NewYear’s,” Mr. Jensen adds.

Mr. Jensen and his wife eatbreakfast every morning in a nookwhere the altar used to sit. Thecouple sleeps in the choir loft,which overlooks the space. “Whenyou’re in bed, you’re in the centerof the church, which is a great feel-ing,” says Mr. Jensen. There are ex-posed wooden beams remainingfrom the original structure through-out the home, and one wooden pewfrom the church sits in the livingroom, along with more plushcouches. Despite its novelty, thepew is often the last seat chosen byguests, Mr. Jensen notes.

Developers of church projects saythey are sometimes hesitant to con-vert sacred structures into commer-cial enterprises. Brian Badrigian, whodeveloped a late-19th-century Baptistchurch in Watertown, Mass., intoeight condo units, says he had“mixed feelings” about buying the

property in 2003 for $1.4 million, es-pecially because it was located in thesame town where his family had livedsince emigrating from Armenia in theearly 1900s. “While the sale allowedthe congregation to move to a moresuitable location, it was also a moveaway from a special place,” he says.“But I have very good feelings aboutsaving a historic building.”

Mr. Badrigian spent about $9 mil-lion on renovating the property,which includes eight units in thechurch, two units in the former rec-tory and four townhouse units hebuilt on the church’s former parkinglot. Of the eight units in the church,five have sold for between $700,000and $1.5 million. The four town-house units sold for around $1 mil-lion each, and the two units in theformer rectory sold for about$700,000 each. Mr. Badrigian sayshe tried to build units with modernamenities, such as dishwashers, cel-lulose insulation in the walls andlaundry rooms with washers anddryers, while also retaining some ofthe unique architectural elements ofthe church, such as its woodentrusses and paneled ceilings. Someof the units on the second floorhave living and dining areas with36-foot-high ceilings.

“Our unit isn’t churchy at all, butit definitely feels unique and differ-ent and not boring,” says Mary Shia,a fundraiser who moved into a three-bedroom condo there. Ms. Shia saysthat she has, however, experiencedsome backlash in the communityover living in a former church. “Thecable guy had a hissy fit about hav-ing to install cable in a church,” shesays. “He acted like the world wasending because people were now liv-ing inside churches.”

Although it’s still relatively rarein the U.S., the adaptive reuse ofchurches has become a popularpractice in other countries, like theU.K. In 2006, the Royal Institutionof Chartered Surveyors found thatsince 2001, about 500 churches inLondon alone had been convertedinto homes. In other countries, suchas Germany and Russia, people stillregard the concept of living in achurch as disrespectful, says BartKellerhuis of Utrecht-based firmZecc Architects, which has doneseveral church-to-home conversionsin the Netherlands.

One of challenges in such conver-sions is reducing the vast space of achurch into something more livable.Living spaces can feel overwhelm-ingly grand, and heating costs can beconsiderable.

Andrew Sudds, who with hiswife, Kristin Conley, paid $600,000for a former Lutheran church inChicago’s Humboldt Park neighbor-hood last year, says it is virtuallyimpossible to keep the room wherehe they sleep warm. The roof isn’tinsulated, making it hard to heatthe 3,500-square-foot space with a39-foot ceiling.

“We don’t keep the heat running,otherwise we’d owe thousands of dol-lars in heating bills,” says Mr. Sudds,an information-technology specialistfor Blue Cross Blue Shield of Illinois.“But even if we did, the heat wouldjust rise and escape through the roof.The fact is that this structure wasn’tbuilt for continuous habitation.”

Religious Conversions: Challenges of Turning God’s Houses Into TownhousesSteeple Sale

$445,000Louviers, Colo.

3,463-square-foot home

Built in the 1920s as a church, thishome located about 20 minutes out-side of Denver was converted in thelate 1900s. It has five bedrooms andthree bathrooms. A previous owneradded a choir loft, where the mastersuite is, as well as stained-glass win-dows. Wood flooring, peaked win-dows, a steeple bell and antique glassdoorknobs remain.

Agent: Linda T. McConnell, Keller Wil-liams Realty

$1.495 millionNew York’s Greenwich Village

1,351-square-foot condo

This 19th century Greek Revival-stylePresbyterian church was converted intoa co-op in 1982. It has two bedroomsand two bathrooms. Ceilings rangefrom about 9½ feet to 14 feet high.There are also five skylights scatteredthroughout the unit, which is locatedon the top floor. There are 15 co-opunits in the building.

Agent: Kim Larkin, Corcoran

$910,000Somerville, Mass.

2,465-square-foot condo

This converted Baptist church, built inthe 1800s, has three bedrooms andthree bathrooms. The unit features45-foot-high ceilings, stained-glasspeaked windows, exposed beams andhardwood floors. It also contains mul-tilevel loft office spaces. There areseven units in the building overall.

Agent: Paul Santucci, Boston Lofts

It’s the real-estate version of the Ref-ormation.

To transform a Christian ScienceChurch in Seattle into townhouseresidences, construction crews hadto fabricate a new interior frame-work while preserving the exterior“skin” of the building.

Brian Runberg, the architect onthe project, designed a concretefloor and a steel frame to supportthe new interior structure. The proj-ect’s design team also built floors todivide the 45-foot-tall space intothree stories, creating 12 distinctunits. To give residents more light,about a dozen additional windowand door openings were cut in thechurch’s exterior—made from Bed-ford limestone, the same materialused on the Pentagon and the Em-pire State Building.

They also reused some of the his-torical details and furnishings.Pews—built with 100-year-old verti-cal-grain fir—were cut up and used tomake stairs in some units. Some ofthe stained-glass windows were in-stalled onto sliding tracks, with clearglass panels behind them. Those letnatural light permeate the structureand allow residents to open and closetheir windows.

Finally, the design and construc-tion team repaired and preservedthe stained-glass oculus in thechurch’s ceiling. The area belowthat dome became the lobby, whereresidents can mingle. Last month,Colin Bodell, an Amazon executive,threw a 1920s-speakeasy-themedparty for 80 people there, completewith a jazz band.

Construction on the project be-gan in 2007, and the first residentmoved in earlier this year. Totalcost for the makeover: about $12million.

“Every historic building has aunique story to tell,” says Mr. Run-berg. “In this case, we tried to buildupon the redeeming and historicaspects of the church, while inno-vating and adding contemporarydetails that modern-day residentswould want.”

—Lauren Schuker Blum

The SanctuaryIn Seattle

A stained-glass dome was pre-served and now accents the lobby.

Pews made of vertical-grain firwere remade into stairs.

Window and door openings werecut into the exterior.

In reframing interior walls, someplaster details were preserved.

WATERTOWN, MASS.A former Baptist church, above right, was bought for $1.4 million in 2003 and divided into eight con-dos. Many of the original details were preserved, such as the wood-paneled vaulted ceiling, above left.

THE NETHERLANDSTwo years ago, Dutch architect Ruud Visser converted a 1930s church along a riverin Rotterdam into a home for a family of four, shown above and below.

SEATTLEColin and Rosemary Bodell, above, at their home in The Sanctuary, a former ChristianScience Church. At right, the building’s restored dome, shown in a panoramic com-posite photograph. The Believeth sign at top marks one of the building’s entrances.

FOR WHOM THE BELLS TOLL

Scan this code tosee a video aboutdivinely inspiredhomes, or visitWSJ.com/Mansion.

NEW YORKA former synagogue in Manhattan’sEast Village, above and at right, wasconverted into a residence in 2005.

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