Lifepoint Church is perhaps the fastest growing church family in the Greater Fredericksburg area. From their humble beginnings with 50 members in 2006, to their initial meetings at Chancellor High School, it quickly became clear that residents in the area were drawn to the mission and vision of Lifepoint. As the church grew in attendance the church leadership made the decision to move worship to Riverbend High School. Even with that move, the church has attendance that has required multiple services at both Riverbend and Courtland High Schools.

The next step for the church was to find an adequately sized permanent home. In December 2011, Lifepoint Church engaged Welford Engineering as part of a team to assist them with negotiating the purchase of an existing building and property located in the City of Fredericksburg. The site, known as the former Ice Park, contains approximately 4.21 acres of property including a 35,000 SF open floor plan building. Working with the Church’s broker, attorney, and lender, Welford Engineering provided survey, site planning and due diligence services. These services included preparation of a site plan to permit the use of the building to be changed from a commercial ice rink and karting track to a place of worship.

As the team helped the church evaluate its decision to purchase this property, Welford Engineering was able to lead the effort to secure City approval to permit the proposed change in use of the property and identify how to address required and necessary parking to support the use. Welford Engineering helped evaluate the shared parking agreements as they were developed to allow the church to grow without acquiring additional property and assisted the Church in developing exit strategies for how they would be able to position their facility for resale in the event that they needed to move into larger quarters. In addition, our firm successfully prepared and got City approval of a site plan to support the change in only two weeks.

As a result of the team’s efforts, Lifepoint acquired the property in February 2012. Renovations on the interior of the building are expected to be completed in 2013.