At Our Lady of the Angels a Day Chapel, hall, and classrooms were not incuded when the church was built in 2012 due to financing. $3.3 million was spent to purchase the ten acre site, site work, build the church and a cape style house. The house has served as the office and Faith Formation class rooms. The basement has been used to make hundreds of Penny Sale Baskets and is used as a shop for projects like preparing the stain glass windows. The plan in 2012 was to add these areas in the future. Now that the addition is complete the house will be prepared to accomadate two retired priests.
Synopsis of the process:
August 2018 the Finance Council created a construction budget of $800K from the Capital Campaign plus $75K from Our Lady of the Angels savings accounts to cover other costs.
All parishioners were invited to be part of a Building Committee. About a dozen parishioners started meeting in September 2018 to start planning an addition. At the initial meeting parishioner John Destefano explained that he would be donating his time to help guide the Parish through this process. John is the owner of Destefano Associates http://destefano-associates.com/
The committee voted to name John Destefano and Parish Business Manager Bill Green co-chair persons.
Several Architects were identified which were approved by the Diocese. They received an RFP that included information below. The top two firms, Lassel in South Berwick and Hamilton in New Ipswich, were interviewed on 10/24. The Committee voted unanamously to recommend Lassel to the Diocese.
Next several needs were intified. They included a Hall with ability to seat 150, a full commercial kitchen, four class rooms for our Faith Formation Program, a small Chapel for weekday Mass to save heating costs in the Church, and an office.
Lassel architects guided the process of developing these areas seperatley and then putting them all together and presented several directions to proceed. A direction was determined and needed changes were identified. At the 12/19 meeting updated plans were presented along with the first renderings of elevations and what the addition would look like conected to the church.
Final plans were approved by the Diocese and released to five approved contractors on March 19th. Designs can be seen here.
4/11/19 Bids were opened at Lassel's office on April 11th. The lowest bid was Pine Brook Construction of Kittery at $1,039,000 ($239K over budget) and the highest was $1,384,000. We are working with Pine Brok to reduce costs.
Pine Brook Construction was asked to propose cost reduction options on numerous items including eliminating the Chapel. Due to current costs minimal reductions were offered by sub-contractors. It was decided that all major components of the project will stay included. Approximately $53,000 in cost reductions will be approved.
6/5/19 The Building Committee and representitives from the Chancery unanamously approve to move forward with construction. Construction costs plus architectural and engineering costs will total approx. $1,086,000.
This total cost is $209K over a budget of $877,000. (Capital Campaign $800K plus $77K savings)
Up to $200K of this overage can be added to the existing loan if needed. The current loan is $812,000 at $4,300/month with approximately 27 years remaining. The additional amount will increase the monthly loan payment amount $800.
Additional Pledges will help close the gap and reduce this cost. New Capital Campaign Pledges will go directly towards this amount.
Initial Project Outline
The objective is to add a facility for parish gatherings, faith formation, and community building functions. Funds available for this project are $800,000. The Finance Council identified an additional $75,000 at their August meeting to be used towards this project. Those funds include $15K remaining from the initial Capital Campaign which raised 1.2 million to build the church and $60K from the Diocessan wide Campaign held several years ago.
Objective:
- Assembly of up to 150 persons for functions. Also, for overflow at Holiday Masses and funerals.
- Commercial Kitchen
- Four enclosed classrooms (12 students plus a teacher)
- One office (Priest plus two for consult)
- Chapel (Integrated in the space)
- Storage
- Expansion potential
- Raised stage/presentation area
Time line:
RFP Out to approved architecture firms 10/3/18
Proposals Due 10/12/18
Interviews 10/24/18
Award 10/25/18 - Awarded to Lassel Architects South Berwick
Design to Permit Nov/Dec/Jan
General Contractor Bid Feb
Construction Start 4/01/19
Completion 9/01/19