- February 5, 2025
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The Ormond Beach City Commission approved 4-1 the purchase of the Ormond Beach Riverside Church property on Tuesday, May 1, for all-cash deal of $729,000 with the hopes of turning it into a civic center, either by repurposing the current church structure or demolishing it and starting new.
The property, owned by the Ormond Beach Riverside Church, Inc., and located at 56 N. Beach St., is also the site of the historic Ormond Beach Union Church, the city's first house of worship on the west side of the Halifax River. It has been on the market for about six months, initially listed at $1 million. The city first expressed interest in the property, which includes the riverfront land adjacent to the Ormond Yacht Club, during a City Commission workshop on Feb. 20.
Mayor Bill Partington mentioned the costs of civic centers in other cities such as New Smyrna Beach and DeLand, which spent about $5,679,103 and $3.6 million respectively. For the city of Ormond Beach to be able to attain a key piece of property in its downtown district at the proposed price, he said he considered it to be of value.
“I think to not take advantage of that would be a missed opportunity future commissions would look back on and really shake their heads," Partington said.
Aside from the $729,000, the church is also in need of renovations ranging from $2,840,000 to $3,310,000, depending on what the city decides to do. A property inspection showed that the church has roof leaks in all three buildings, mold in the existing classrooms, doesn't have a fire sprinkler system and that the presence of lead and asbestos could be present.
Not all city commissioners were on board with acquiring the church property. City Commissioner Rob Littleton said he believed the consensus between them during a strategic planning workshop a couple months ago was not to engage in big expenditures with the pending homestead exemption on the ballot.
He also said citizens haven't called him asking for a civic center, and that some people might see a problem with the city spending this amount of money on a new acquisition when the MacDonald House is still in need of renovations.
“I get why people would want to buy it, but this is a lot of money to spend so we can fill up a venue with 400-500 people like twice a year," Littleton said.
The cost of renovations made City Commissioner Rick Boehm question whether the city would be better off demolishing the existing structure and building something new and up to code.
“Now, keep in mind," Boehm said. "This building was built in 1974. So we’re not talking about something that was here when Ormond Beach was founded.”
That matter will be discussed at a later date. The resolution just involved the purchase of the property.
City Commissioner Dwight Selby, who first brought up the idea to buy the property to the City Commission, said the location made sense for the city, and considering it includes the riverfront parcel, they could have regretted not buying the land in the future.
“If we hadn’t bought this, somebody could’ve walked into City Hall, got a building permit and built a house on that lot," Selby said.
