Case Study
Overview
In a period of rapid growth, Real Life Church sought assistance from Foundry to complete renovations and begin phase one of a new sanctuary.
Location
Clermont, Florida
Real Life Community Church in Clermont, Fla. sought assistance from Foundry Commercial’s Project Management team to complete renovations to their existing education facilities and Phase I of their new 5,000-seat sanctuary. The Clermont location of Real Life Community Church serves as the main campus, with several satellite campuses located throughout Central Florida. Real Life Community Church’s facilities consisted of 60,000 square feet on nearly 40 acres of land, which not only served the community in the traditional church sense, but also served more than 500 pre-kindergarten through 12th grade students at the affiliated Real Life Academy. Prior to these renovations, Real Life’s assembly capacity was approximately 1,800 people. Foundry partnered with Real Life to overcome several hurdles along the way, including navigating the master plan process in Lake County, which can be quite challenging.
Foundry’s Project Management team was tasked with creating an overall development scope and budget for this project. With Foundry’s assistance, a combination of structural steel buildings with interior and exterior architectural treatments functioned as a cost-effective solution to the church’s growing space needs. The lender interface for this project required that two lenders fund the development, which was complicated by the fact that the initial capital campaign to fund the project fell short. Foundry stepped in to assist with the capital campaign for the project, aggressively seeking gift-in-kind participation from all construction and development parties. Through Foundry’s creative solutions, the firm provided a cost-benefit analysis that created a reduction in first-time costs while also reducing operating expenses. In addition, Foundry sourced the sale of excess fill material, which yielded $500,000 of unexpected revenue to the owner.