SHREVEPORT, La. -- Members of Summer Grove Baptist Church voted to move forward with plans to buy a mall wracked by a dwindling number of tenants and convert it to a worship and community center.
According to a news report in The Times, the church will renovate a J.C. Penney store to become the worship center, while other stores will be converted to classrooms. Family movies will be shown in the mall's eight-screen theater, said the Rev. Rod Masteller, pastor of the 5,000-member church.
No terms of a proposed deal were disclosed, but the mall has been on the market for two months with a $5 million asking price, according the news report. (see related story, Church may purchase $5 million mall property.)
The church must sell its present campus before it can move ahead. Masteller told the newspaper he does not have an interested buyer for the property, which was built in 1994 at a cost of $8.5 million. The church also owns additional property it hopes to sell, but Masteller said its sale is not critical.
"There are still a lot of different things that could sour the deal," Masteller said, noting there are, "a lot of things seemingly falling into place that might work."
If the church does buy the mall, Masteller said, a Piccadilly Cafeteria would remain open. Other businesses, which include at least one church, would be considered individually, the newspaper reported.
