View from above Madison Place Apartments off Masten Drive showing part of  the land Triad could soon add to its campus.

What would be the single largest purchase of land in Triad’s history — about 92 acres — goes to members for a vote Nov. 19 in the business meeting following the service.

Dennis Roberts, executive administrator (church and academy operations), said that the formal request for the church to approve the purchase comes after unanimous votes by both the Kernersville Board of Aldermen and Kernersville Planning Board to approve the church’s plan to rezone the property.

“Because we’re under budget on Phase II of our expansion plan and ahead of schedule in giving to our three-year ‘Not Without You’ capital campaign, we’ll be able to include the purchase price into our existing Phase II loan without any increase to the loan amount, payments or other associated requirements,” Roberts said.

Rezoning required for development

The town asked the church to rezone the land from business and residential (HB-S, RS-12 & RS-20) to institutional and public special use (IP-S) because of its plans to build athletic fields, parking and access road, and concessions on about 15 acres, or 16.3 percent of the property.

The site plan for the complex of athletic fields that Triad presented along with the rezoning includes:

• One baseball field
• One softball field
• One soccer/football/track & field combination
• Concessions
• Practice areas
• Parking
• Access drive

Lead Pastor Rob Decker said that the land purchase offers a host of ways for the church and its ministries to connect, serve, and reach the community for Jesus Christ.

“The land purchase is an incredible unforeseen opportunity for us to expand the cause of Christ right where we’ve been planted, both now and for future generations,” he said. “Whether it’s through our Upward children’s sport ministries or adult softball leagues, or even new ideas like soccer leagues or football leagues, this major expansion of our campus creates countless avenues to connect with others and spread the gospel!”

Aden Stoltzfus, a New Building Team member and Triad Baptist Christian Academy school board member, said that the soccer/football/track & field combination field particularly offers a wide range of possibilities for church and Academy use.

“Currently the academy offers soccer, softball and baseball and, as the school expands to other sports, the fields can accommodate them as well as handle existing uses such as Upward soccer and football,” he said.

With the New Building Team’s mission to conduct due diligence for the land and potential uses complete, Stoltzfus said that it will now look to Triad’s Executive Leadership Team for direction about next steps for the athletic facilities, including what will be built and when.

That work is also tied to the third phase of the church’s expansion plan.

“Even though the athletic fields are tied specifically to church and school athletic ministries, they do play a vital role in our next phase of constructing a new sanctuary because we would need the current ball field for parking and to move Upward sports and other activities that take place there to the new field during any new sanctuary construction,” Stoltzfus said.

“This is just one of the many scenarios being considered. Further studies are needed before presenting a Phase III plan to members.”

Land purchase background

Last spring, the Executive Leadership Team authorized the church to put $10,000 in earnest money toward a possible purchase of the land after members gave the proposal the go-ahead, and the church entered into an agreement to purchase the property.

Then in October 2013, the New Building team asked members to approve delaying the land closing from March to December 2014 so they could focus on getting the Worship Center/Gym project online.

Members overwhelmingly approved the delay. Since then, the church has been making interest-only payments to the owners during the pre-closing period—or 5 percent of the sales price divided into monthly payments.

At the time members approved the extension, Roberts said that the church’s relationship with its new bank, Bank of North Carolina, was too new for it to consider adding the land purchase price to the loan covering the Worship Center/Gym construction.

However, since then, members already have contributed more than half of the three-year fundraising campaign total in its first year, and the bank/church relationship has matured.