The sale closed

First posted December 31, 2008: After much due diligence, delay, etc – and lots of paperwork – the closing of the sale of St. Paul’s property to the Covenant Soup Kitchen was held on the afternoon of December 30, 2009.  The basic terms had been settled long before and were in place by the time of our first announcement of the sale in January 2008.  However, when a church sells property to a nonprofit nothing is simple!

The complications get multiplied when title to the property goes back to the early part of the previous century. Then there’s the fact that the Secretary of State’s office doesn’t have records, such as needed tax numbers, for St. Paul’s – or the Diocese. That’s because it all goes back to an act of the legislature granting the Diocese corporate status the century before the previous century….

In the end everything went smoothly – as a transaction between organizations with common goals should.  For the moment changes – except who pays what bills – will be modest since building usage will continue about as it is now. At some point St. Paul’s office will move but that still is a ways off.  In the meantime all the little usage details will be worked out in an informal manner.