For decades, a Salem church has been buying up homes and businesses in one of the city’s oldest neighborhoods.

Salem Alliance Church now owns 31 properties, worth $22.7 million, comprising part or all of eight square blocks in the Grant neighborhood, just north of downtown.

It's the landlord of nine for-profit, nonprofit or government organizations, and owns eight rental houses. A church official personally owns six more rentals in the neighborhood.

Leaders say the purchases have been driven by one goal: Parking for the 3,500 people who attend weekend services.

Megachurches — those counting a thousand or more regular attendees — started rising in popularity in the 1980s by offering innovative ministries styled after performing arts centers, with fewer traditional religious trappings.

Other growing churches, including Morning Star Community Church and Salem First Church of the Nazarene, built out in Salem’s suburbs, where they had plenty of room for huge auditoriums and sprawling parking lots.

In the early 1990s, Salem Alliance leaders considered relocating, too, Executive Pastor Robb Childs said.

But after deliberating and praying, they decided the church would grow in the neighborhood it had called home since 1937, when it bought a Seventh Day Adventist Church on the corner of 5th and Gaines streets NE.

“The vast majority of our leadership felt a commitment that we needed to stay connected to our community and seek to improve it,” Childs said.

Today the church considers the neighborhood, including its schools, part of its ministry.

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Some neighbors raise concerns

As it's grown, the church has faced criticism.

Some neighbors say taking down buildings to create parking lots isn’t helping the neighborhood.

They complain that some of Salem Alliance’s properties are dilapidated, boarded up and targets for crime. Conversely, they worry about neighborhood gentrification.

And they object to mixing religion with business and city affairs.

The latter came to a boil last month when the city of Salem leased the former Capital Press building, which the church bought a few months ago, to house its public library while the library building is renovated.

Critics say members of the LGBTQ community, or others uncomfortable with conservative evangelical religion, won’t feel welcome in the church-owned building.

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Church leaders disagree and note the church has worked for years to help all members of its neighborhood and the community.

“The heart behind our business side of things — it’s driven by a desire to be a good neighbor and to benefit our community,” Childs said. “Obviously we have a belief that a relationship with Christ is the way to find peace. But those businesses we’re doing aren’t driven by that overt evangelism.”

They say they carefully consider their property purchases to ensure they improve, or at least don’t negatively affect, the historic neighborhood.

“We’ve made a commitment to honor the residential aspect of the community we happen to find ourselves in,” Childs said.

After leaders decided to stay in the neighborhood, the church began construction on a new sanctuary, immediately causing tensions.

“The neighborhood was concerned we were encroaching in a residential area, that we would change the flavor and nature of the neighborhood,” Childs said.

Parking, especially, was a concern. But instead of pointing out that the streets were for public parking, the church decided to work with the neighborhood, said Sam Skillern, a Salem Alliance member who co-chairs the Grant Neighborhood Association.

“Parking really was the thing that started the church on its journey to servanthood to the neighborhood,” said Skillern, who has owned a home near the church since 1998.

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The church created a parking ministry – a team of people who put out signs each weekend reserving one side of each street for neighbors.

“They’ve been a good neighbor,” said Kerry Wymetalek, quartermaster for the Veterans of Foreign Wars Marion Post 661, located across from the church. “The only big issue is that on Sunday they take all the parking up. But they put out signs. That’s a very good neighborly thing to do.”

Then, though he lives in Keizer, facilities manager Tim France joined the neighborhood association, to see how the church could help neighbors.

That led to the creation of a years-long, church-led after-school program at Grant Elementary School.

After that ended, the church sponsored school teams, sponsored gift-giving trees, and gave away holiday meals at Grant, expanding later to Highland Elementary and Parrish Middle schools.

Three blocks of businesses

In the 1980s and '90s, Salem Alliance experienced explosive membership growth, Childs said. By 2000, Sunday services drew an average of 2,800 attendees, inundating neighborhood streets with cars.

Over those two decades, the church bought 17 properties on blocks surrounding its main building.

Most now are church parking lots. The properties also include three rental houses, two of which are boarded up and unused; two dilapidated commercial buildings partially used by the church; and the parcel that houses the church’s Faith Annex.

In 2001, the church began investing in commercial properties.

Now, drivers heading north out of downtown on Broadway Street will pass three full blocks of church-owned commercial buildings:

First, at the corner of Market and Broadway streets, is The Northwest Hub, a nonprofit bicycle shop and training center that’s been there since 2015. The church purchased that building in 1998 and has leased it to various tenants.

Next comes Sparrow Furniture, a church-run furniture store that provides job training to refugees. It opened last year in the old Aramark building, which sat empty for years after the church bought it in 2008. The building also houses a socially-conscious blanket store, Sackcloth & Ashes.

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Across Gaines Street is Broadway Commons, a four-story, multi-purpose building the church constructed in partnership with the city of Salem’s Urban Renewal Agency.

It houses the church-run Broadway Coffeehouse, as well as Better Than Mama’s restaurant, Salem Free Clinics, Salem Leadership Foundation, and a marketing company, and offers meeting rooms when the church isn’t using them.

The church bought the property in 2007 and opened the building in 2010.

On the next block is the former Capital Press building, which Salem Alliance will lease to the city for the temporary library. The church bought that property in March 2019.

Childs said it wanted the Capital press property primarily for its 61 parking spaces, which the church had leased on weekends for two decades.

And finally, there’s a former auto sales lot, now used for church parking. The church bought that parcel from the Capital Press in 2018.

Off of Broadway Street, the church bought what’s now the parking lot behind Broadway Commons, as well as the former Willoughby’s Beauty Products building on Shipping Street, now used as the church Youth Center. Both were purchased in 2001.

In 2002 it bought a now-dilapidated building on Hood Street, partially used for church activities. In 2004 it purchased another rental house. In 2007, it bought a parcel on Church Street with three rental houses and a commercial building, which it rents to another religious organization. And in 2010 it purchased another rental house, which is now empty and boarded up.

Meanwhile, France, the church facilities manager, has bought five rental houses and a duplex in the neighborhood. Those include a small home on an otherwise church-owned block, which France purchased from the Capital Press last fall. France said those purchases aren’t related to church business.

Urban renewal project

Skillern says the church’s Broadway Commons project, completed in 2010, kick-started redevelopment of Broadway Street and the Grant neighborhood.

“Mostly in the late '90s, Broadway was a dangerous, vacant strip. There were boarded up buildings, empty car lots,” Skillern said.

The city had been trying to improve the area for two decades, and had bought three properties through its urban renewal agency.

Salem Alliance was the first to purchase one of the properties, for Broadway Commons.

“You have to give the church credit because they didn’t just build it for the congregation,” Skillern said. “It’s a place where people could gather.”

Another property was the former Eagles Lodge, which later was developed into Broadway Town Square, housing Salem Cinema. And another became the YWCA, with 55 housing units and commercial space in a four-story building.

Since then, “There’s just been this renaissance,” Skillern said.

More businesses have opened, and home prices have risen.

However, Skillern said, “We’re very aware of gentrification.”

“It’s not our goal to improve the neighborhood so those of us who own property can benefit,” he said. “We’re still a very diverse neighborhood. We’re still affordable. But we’re also seeing market forces push some of our costs up.”

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So, what about the church’s empty, dilapidated houses?

“We’re actually embarrassed by that,” Childs said. “The houses were not super well-cared for before we got them. And we haven’t invested a ton of money in them, to be honest, either.”

The houses eventually will be taken down, he said. In the meantime, church staffers and neighbors keep a close eye on them to discourage vandalism.

When it built Broadway Commons, Salem Alliance agreed to keep part of it on the county tax rolls for a period of time. That’s important, because church-owned properties are exempt from property taxes, as long as they’re being used for church purposes.

The church paid $83,508 in taxes on Broadway Commons last year.

It paid an additional $116.072 in taxes for its rental homes and several commercial buildings.

Another 14 Salem Alliance properties, with a real market value of $9.6 million, are exempt from property taxes.

Campus plan more modest

Earlier this year, as it considered whether to buy the Capital Press building, the church and its board for the first time hired an architect to design a formal campus plan.

Childs said the plan doesn’t contain any immediate actions to expand the church’s property holdings.

That’s because the church has the option of razing some of its rental houses, which have commercial zoning, for additional parking.

Such a move would be unpopular with neighbors, and would have to be negotiated with the neighborhood association, Childs said.

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Future property purchases are limited.

Childs said it’s impractical for the church to expand across busy Broadway Street to the west, or Market Street to the south.

“To expect families with young kids to walk across Broadway on a regular basis is not very attractive,” he said.

The church made a commitment to the neighborhood association not to buy any more properties across Church Street, to the east, he said.

That means any more expansion would take place to the north.

“As properties adjacent to our campus become available, we’ll explore the possibility of purchasing them, but it’s not a guarantee,” Childs said.

“We do not have any major expansion plans that are hidden,” he said. “How much more we do is a huge question mark. Maybe nothing.”

Contact the reporter at tloew@statesmanjournal.com, 503-399-6779 or follow at Twitter.com/Tracy_Loew

Salem Alliance property purchases

Before 1974: 1238 5th St. NE. This former residential area is now part of a full block of church parking.

November 1979: 1305 5th St. NE. The church bought the former Faith Tabernacle church and opened a counseling center there. It’s now the location of the Salem Alliance Faith Annex.

October 1980: 525 Market St. NE. The church bought this former residence and a few years later moved its counseling center into the building. It’s now part of a full block of church parking.

1984, 1986, 1989: 1325, 1361 and 1399 Church St. NE. Salem Alliance purchased several properties on this full block, where its church building already was located. It combined the lots into one address: 555 Gaines St. NE. It also purchased multiple residential and commercial properties on the corner of Hood St. and Fairgrounds Road NE, which have been combined into a parking lot, with an unused commercial building.

September 1998: 1405 and 1427 Church St. NE. This dilapidated, two-story commercial building and parking lot are now used for the church’s monthly food bank.

July 1999: 1430 5th St. NE. This residence is used to provide free or low-cost housing to returning missionaries.

September 1999: 1495 Church St. NE. This house is one of three adjoining residential properties that are boarded up and unused.

June 2000: 1485 Church St. NE. Another of the three unused houses.

August 2001: 1395 5th St. NE. This property is now the parking lot for the Broadway Commons.

October 2001: 548 Shipping St. NE. This building, previously owned by Willoughby’s Beauty Products, is now the Salem Alliance Youth Center.

January 2002: 565 Hood St. NE. This dilapidated commercial building is used for the church’s firewood ministry, which provides wood to those in need.

September 2004: 1490 5th St. NE: This is a rental house.

February 2007: 1390 Broadway St. NE. The church bought this commercial property, which had sold for a half-million dollars six years before, from the city of Salem for $84,260 as part of an urban renewal project. It’s now Broadway Commons, a mixed use building that opened in 2010.

February 2007: 1340-1380 Church St. NE. This property contains a commercial building, rented by Child Evangelism Fellowship, and three rental houses.

December 2008: 1264 and 1225 Broadway St. NE. This building and parking lot, the former Aramark Uniform Services, sat empty for years before opening as the church-sponsored Sparrow Furniture.

March 2010: 1465 Church St. NE. Another of the three unused houses.

February 2015: 1230 Broadway and 547 Market Streets. This building and parking lot, the former location of Cycle Country, now houses the nonprofit The Northwest HUB bicycle shop.

July 2018: 1488 Broadway St. NE. This former used-car lot is used as a church parking lot.

March 2019: 1400-1440 Broadway St. NE. The old Capital Press building and parking lot. On July 24, the Salem City Council voted to temporarily house the Salem Public Library there during renovations on the library building.

Salem Alliance’s facilities manager, Tim France, also has been buying rental houses in the neighborhood:

July 2002: 585 Market St. NE.

May 2006: 1263 Church St. NE.

August 2009: 865 Market St. NE.

June 2011: 660-690 Market St. NE (duplex)

April 2017: 580 Market St. NE

November 2018: 545 Hood St. NE