Q:  I understand we have drawings of what the new buildings will look like!

A:  We do indeed. You can view them in our office building, or download them here. These are the architects' renderings of our new three-story building that will house our parish hall, offices and meeting spaces.

Q:  What's this I hear about the bishop having an office here?

A:  Right again! Bishop Dabney Smith has committed to placing a "satellite office" here at the cathedral. The diocese will lease about 1,000 square feet on the second floor of our new office building. The main diocesan offices – currently in an office park in Sarasota, where they are already out of space – will likely move to DaySpring. The bishop will not be here full time, but he'll maintain a suite of space that he will use from time to time, and others on his staff may use the offices. Bishop Smith's presence here strengthens our role as the cathedral. The office here is also a good way for him to maintain contact with the north end of our diocese.

Q:  What else will we see on the drawings?

A:  Please take note of the Bishop's Chapel, another way that we reinforce our role as the cathedral and as our bishop's seat. This will be a modest-sized worship space, likely with a movable altar and seating, that can be configured a number of ways for various kinds of worship. This chapel underscores yet again that what we're about here is worship and ministry. We also draw your attention to the catering kitchen and parish hall with seating for 300. In addition to providing a wonderful space for our own festive meals and celebrations, we see this as a revenue source. A lot of groups around town are looking for halls to rent with this seating capacity. We think this will be a desirable meeting and event space for other groups, and the kitchen will make it easy for caterers to function.

Q:  You've said before that we're going to rent out part of the second floor and all of the third floor of our new building. Where are we on lining up tenants?

A:  Our leasing agent is showing the plans around town and has generated a lot of interest. There is one potential tenant who would lease the entire third floor and will be ready to occupy it in January 2010. We expect the building to be completed in late 2009, so that would be perfect timing.

A:  That's right. At 65 percent occupancy – a very conservative estimate – we would see a cash flow annually of $400,000 to $490,000, which we would use to pay off the financing of the second and third stories in 12 to 13 years. After that, the tenant lease payments come directly to us as an income stream. How's that: a regular source of income, beyond pledges and contributions, of $400,000+ annually. We have explained this plan to our lender, Synovus, which has told us this is a smart and reasonable plan (and has agreed to finance the project, which suggests they're confident we can do this). We've also talked with knowledgeable people about the downtown office space market and they too think our plans are conservative and do-able.

Q:  And the timetable for all this is ...?

A:  Demolition is complete, as you can see, and the contractor is completing the clearing of the site. By the beginning of April we should have hard numbers on the actual costs of construction. You'll see a construction fence go up around the property in May with a big banner with our slogan, "A time to build." We are in the permitting process with the city, which takes several weeks. We will have a very festive and celebratory groundbreaking in May – watch for an exact date and details, you won't want to miss this. The actual work will start in late May. We expect completion in the last quarter of 2009.

A:  More than a year ago we realized that if we based our decisions about the future of St. Peter's on our ability to provide parking, we'd never do anything. We couldn't raise the money to build a parking garage as well as the office and meeting spaces we need. We decided that our priorities were people, not cars. So we simply gave up on the idea of building a parking garage and moved ahead with our plans to provide space for mission, ministry, administration, teaching and fellowship.

These other factors come into play:

• Whoever buys the Baptist Sanctuary is going to have to deal with parking. The Princess Martha needs parking. City Hall needs parking. This is a problem that intelligent people can solve, and we'll be happy to be part of that solution when everybody puts their heads together on it. It's not a problem we can solve alone. We're experts at praying, not parking.

• The city has recently informed us that they have no plans for the parking lots on the north side of Second Avenue N. A few years ago they were thinking of building a federal building or some other facility on that site and warned us we couldn't count on it forever for Sunday parking. That's why we felt pressured to build our own parking. Now they say they're not doing anything there. (Their own employees need the parking there!) So some of the pressure is off.

• You may not be aware that we own the little building just to the north of the office building we occupy. It's the law offices of DelCamp and Siegel at 219 Fourth St. N. One possibility would be to raze that building and create parking there for daily use for ourselves and the tenants of our new three-story building.

A:  That's correct. We did everything we were asked to do – dotted all the i's, crossed all the t's, provided a survey and title. We were ready to sign the contract with WRH Princess Martha LLC. But at the 11th hour – the last day of the due-diligence period – the buyers canceled the deal (as they had the legal right to do). They said they hadn't realized how hard it would be to get a demolition permit from the city. The property is back on the market and has been shown to other potential buyers. We know this is a difficult sale, and we always knew it wouldn't be a quick sale. But it also won't be a fire sale. We aren't desperate. We can move ahead with our own plans even if the sanctuary doesn't sell. There's always a Plan B, and we continue to talk to interested parties about alternatives.

Q:  What's the city's interest in all this? Why is it so difficult to get a demolition permit? I've forgotten the history there, or I never knew it. What's the background?

A:  When the cathedral bought the Baptist Sanctuary 17 years ago, we had it placed on the local register of historic places, thinking that would help us obtain grants to restore it. That never happened. Under city ordinance, we cannot tear down the sanctuary without permission from the city because it is on the historical register. And for many years now the city has refused to allow us to tear down the building we own unless we can demonstrate that we have a plan for what we'll build there and the financial ability to execute that plan. The city doesn't want to see a vacant lot there.

Questions? Comments? Please contact Senior Warden Sheree Graves shereegraves@asgraves.net or Building Committee Chair Pat Wahlen pwahlen@msn.com. We are happy to talk with you about all this!