Lafayette’s Flatirons Community Church is once again poised to make the move across South Boulder Road.

The mega-church, which has building-hopped around Lafayette for years, is expanding again – this time taking over half of the Lafayette Marketplace shopping center directly across South Boulder Road with plans to use the space for church offices.

Lead Pastor Jim Burgen explained the rationale behind the move during services Saturday night.

“In November, we averaged just under 20,000 people here every weekend, which is 4,700 more than last year in November,” he said. “Which is awesome, but we’re feeling the squeeze.”

The church is under contract to acquire the marketplace portion of the retail center from Jax Mercantile owner Jim Quinlan, who bought the 93,000-square-foot plaza in 2012 for $2.8 million. Quinlan said his Jax Ranch & Home store on the west end of the complex is not part of the transaction.

Lafayette Marketplace, formerly Plaza Lafayette, at 400 E. South Boulder Road, is home to seven restaurants and bars, and nine retailers. The church is going to buy all of them, except for marijuana dispensary Herbal Wellness. Burgen said Flatirons will also work to staff with restaurants with unemployed and underemployed community members.

“We figure we’ll be a part of the community, not just drive-in and drive-out. We want to be a part of this community,” he said. “That’s really, really important to us. So the idea is we’ll have some great places for you to park for church services, and all through the week you can meet up with friends to get some good food over there, grab some coffee or whatever you want to grab over there all through the week.

“We’ll also use those businesses to train some really good people who actually want and need jobs.”

The first domino in this development fell Tuesday ,when Quinlan announced that his Gourmet Cheese Pantry Shoppe, Cottage Home, and Hearth & Design Gallery stores in the marketplace will close at the end of January. On Wednesday, Quinlan informed his marketplace tenants that the building was under contract to be sold.

Quinlan said the transaction has “been in the works for a while now,” and that while a contract has been drawn up, “it’s subject to some things falling into place.”

Marketplace tenants for months had heard rumors swirling of a possible sale to Flatirons. Front Range Brewing Company co-owner Chris Dutton said the writing has been on the wall for some time.

“It was a couple of months ago that I first heard the rumor,” Dutton said. “But there’s been a fair amount of traffic from representatives of Flatirons walking around here for weeks, showing people around.”

The Lafayette Marketplace acquisition is the latest in a series of expansion moves by Flatirons, which originated in 1983 as Trinity Bible Evangelical Church and met at Centaurus High School.

In 2012, Flatirons built a 425-space auxiliary parking lot immediately north of the church on Waneka Parkway.

Last year, Flatirons spent $5 million on the 51,200-square-foot former Lookout Mountain Community Church building in Genesee for use as its west campus.

In October, the Lafayette Planning Commission approved the church’s plans to build a third, 265-space parking lot on Robin Street.

Flatirons, with a current congregation of roughly 16,000, was listed in 2012 as the 23rd largest church in the county and second fastest growing by Outreach magazine.

Colorado’s largest congregation last jumped South Boulder Road in 2011 when the church vacated the space that is now the Jax Ranch & Home store on the south side of South Boulder Road and took over a pair of vacant big box buildings on the north side of the road that previously housed a Walmart, Albertsons and carpet store.

The church merged the buildings in a $22 million construction project and popped the roof on the Albertsons building to create a 4,000-seat auditorium within what is now a 162,000-square-foot facility.

The church has yet to fully outline what it plans to do with the marketplace property, but most tenants have multi-year lease contracts in place with Quinlan which would transfer to Flatirons with the sale.

Several business owners lamented the fact that Quinlan – who immediately breathed new life into the previously defunct shopping center – is pulling out.

Ado Salguero, owner of Bistro 503, moved his restaurant from Public Road to Lafayette Marketplace a year and a half ago specifically because Quinlan had taken over the shopping center.

“When Jim Quinlan took over this space, it made me move,” Salguero said. “In theory, it was incredible. I was going to be next to the first brewery in Lafayette in a revitalized area.”

Salguero, who is considering a relocation to Boulder depending on the church’s plans, said business traffic hasn’t panned out the way he anticipated during his restaurant’s first 18 months in the marketplace.

“I’m not really loved here in Lafayette,” Salguero said. “This plaza is a forgotten wasteland. Businesses here have been struggling since we got here. I’m ready and willing to get out.”

Eric Ryant, owner of Herbal Wellness, Lafayette’s only marijuana dispensary, said he was aware that his business won’t be included in the transaction.

“Supposedly, me and Jax are the only ones who wouldn’t be part of that deal because the church doesn’t feel like it would be appropriate for them to own a dispensary,” Ryant said, adding that he would still be willing to operate with Flatirons as a landlord.

Dutton, whose brewery still has four-years remaining on its lease, said he plans to wait and see how things go with Flatirons owning the marketplace.

“I guess I’ve got four years to weigh my options,” Dutton said. “But this kind of pulls the rug out from under you a little bit. I just hope we can recover from it.”

Flatirons Executive Pastor Paul Brunner said the church hasn’t yet had “face time” with marketplace tenants, but contends that Flatirons will have a positive economic influence on the shopping center.

“We truly believe Flatirons’ presence will bring life, vibrancy and people to the tenants of this plaza,” Brunner wrote in an email.

Rezoning of the marketplace won’t be required in order for Flatirons to fill it with business offices. The property is zoned commercial and business offices are permitted in Lafayette under that designation.

If Flatirons plans to use the space as a church, it would be subject to a special review.

Lafayette’s 2010 decision to sell the former Albertsons site to the church drew fire from residents and local business community for its failure to find a sales-tax-generating use for the buildings.

If Flatirons doesn’t renew the leases of current Lafayette Marketplace businesses and opts to eventually fill those sites with its own operations, the pending purchase could effectively serve to gobble up another sizeable chunk of South Boulder Road retail space.

“At this rate, they’re going to own half of Lafayette,” Ryant said.

Daily Camera Staff Writer Alex Burness contributed to this report.

Doug Pike: 720-648-5022, piked@coloradohometownweekly.com