Properties of the Faith: ND experts help Church leaders consider real estate options
In the mid-2010s, Church and parish leaders from St. Austin Parish in Austin, Texas, realized their 50-year-old school, ministry and rectory maintenance costs would soon overwhelm their financial resources.
Updates or reconstruction of the old buildings would cost more than the urban parish could afford, said Patricia Dolese, a graduate of Notre Dame and Texas and a volunteer project manager for the parish.
What they had was prime real estate right next to the expanding University of Texas. But they didn’t want to sell their land and move away from their beloved neighborhood and parish church, so they needed to get creative.
Did they ever. The parish landed a 99-year land-lease deal where developers are building a tall residential building for Texas students on parish land. The 29-story tower will include a new parish rectory and gym, plus proceeds to construct new school and ministry buildings, and ongoing funds to maintain all of it. The tower will also include 200 affordable housing beds that will help low-income college students save a total of about $2 million per year.
This kind of forward-thinking focus on property and mission is exactly why Notre Dame’s Fitzgerald Institute for Real Estate (FIRE) started the Church Properties Initiative (CPI) last year. One of CPI’s early research efforts was a case study of the Austin project.
Read more here.
Latest Faith
- Notre Dame Vision program celebrates 20 years of in-person programmingFor the past 20 years, Notre Dame, Saint Mary’s and Holy Cross students of different majors and walks of life have given their summers to empower high school students to ask big questions during one-week summer conferences on Notre Dame’s campus.
- de Nicola Center presents Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal to Robert P. GeorgeClick for a video profile of Robert P. George The de Nicola Center for Ethics and Culture presented the 2023 Notre Dame Evangelium Vitae Medal…
- Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism names new co-directorsAmerican studies and history professor Kathleen Sprows Cummings, who has led the Cushwa Center for the Study of American Catholicism for the past 11 years, will step down from the position in June, with Notre Dame historian Darren Dochuk and theologian David Lantigua becoming co-directors. Cummings, the Rev. John A. O'Brien College Professor of History, has been associated with the center for nearly 30 years, starting when she arrived at the University as a doctoral student in history.
- Confronting cultural change: Divinity students seek intercultural competency to improve ministryStudents in Notre Dame’s Master of Divinity program cited a visit to the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe as the emotional highlight of their pilgrimage to Mexico City. Seminarian Johnny Ryan, C.S.C., said getting to experience Mary’s maternal love for everyone was more powerful than he expected even though he was familiar with the story of Mary’s appearance before Juan Diego in a vision in 1531. He brought back prayer cards with the iconic image that thrilled his Latino students at Saint Adalbert…
- Creating the Passion: Notre Dame Folk Choir invites students to compose original lyrics and musicJ.J. Wright wanted to reconceive a project he'd started with the Notre Dame Children's Choir when the annual President's Forum asked the campus to reflect on the clergy sexual abuse crisis. The project was an original composition of the Passion, the Gospel stories leading up to and including Jesus's crucifixion and burial. Wright immediately saw parallels between the religious story and the sexual abuse crisis, ranging from betrayal and cover-up to an unwillingness to stand up for those who are most vulnerable.…
- Sister Helen Prejean, others to speak at biennial Catholic Social Tradition ConferenceGuests including anti-death penalty advocate Sister Helen Prejean, of “Dead Man Walking” fame, and Bishop Alfred Agyenta of Ghana will deliver remarks during the upcoming Catholic Social Tradition Conference from March 23 to 25 at the University of Notre Dame.
