By Eileen Smith
Courier-Post
April 4, 2008
http://www.courierpostonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20080404/NEWS01/804040378/1006/news01
CAMDEN — A plan to consolidate nearly half the parishes in the Camden Diocese will dramatically reduce the church's need for real estate.
Decisions on which properties will be retained and how much they are worth will be determined over the year or two it will take to implement the plan.
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| St. John Vianney Church in Deptford will close in the restructuring. The new worship site will be St. Margaret in Woodbury Heights. Photo by Douglas M. Bovitt |
Analysts and market watchers expect values will be linked to both the location of the property and its current use.
"Prospective buyers might include professional services, nonprofits and retailers -- but it's all highly dependent on location and how large the property is," said Dan McGovern, a specialist with CB Richard Ellis in Marlton and a basketball coach at St. Teresa's in Runnemede.
Under the plan, St. Teresa's joins St. Maria Goretti of Runnemede. McGovern's childhood parish, Annunciation in Bellmawr, is merging with St. Anne of Westville and St. Maurice of Brooklawn.
The Roman Catholic Church is the world's largest single real estate holder. But it's frequently difficult to appraise the value of church buildings because neighborhoods vary and there are few comparable sales, said Joseph Claude Harris, a Seattle-based researcher who focuses on the finances of the church.
"They don't always turn out to be really big deals," he said. "For example, it's very difficult to sell a school unless you find a buyer who wants to run a school."
Parishes whose attendance has declined along with their neighborhoods also will discover that the value of the property has fallen, too.
"Congregations dwindle to the point where they just can't pay the bills for the maintenance," Harris said. "Some properties might not be salable at all."
Communities that lose a tax-exempt church likely won't gain a large rateable when the properties are sold as the most likely buyer for a church is another religious group.
In Mantua, the former home of the Incarnation parish went on the block when the congregation built a larger church. A Protestant church is in negotiations for the site. Under the diocese plan, Incarnation's new church will stand alone.
Churches typically are listed for sale as commercial properties, said Jennifer Raffa of Weichert Real Estate in Turnersville.
"There are Realtors who have buyers who are looking for churches," she said.
In his announcement Thursday, Bishop Joseph Galante said merged parishes would retain their real estate holdings.
"The diocese itself does not benefit from the sale of property or real estate, since all assets and liabilities belong to the merged parish," he said.
Harris said the Camden consolidation won't be the last.
"Bishops don't take closing churches lightly," he said.
"But as long as attendance declines and there are fewer priests, we'll see more churches close."
Reach Eileen Smith at (856) 486-2444 or esmith@courierpostonline.com
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