10. Sale-Leaseback
An ELCA church in suburban Minneapolis shared it’s building with an ethnic 7th Day Adventist Church for about a decade. The arrangement worked well because the churches worshiped on different days and the Lutheran church gained the rent income. The Adventist church was growing while the Lutheran church was declining, and over the years the Adventist congregation saved money to buy its own building. From this came the idea to sell the Lutheran facility to the 7th Day Adventist church with a long-term leaseback arrangement so the Lutheran church could continue to use the facility for its worship, offices and activities. In effect the landlord and tenant traded places. In exchange for a below-market sale price the Adventist church agreed to provide free rent to the Lutheran church for 10 years. After 10 years the Lutheran church has the right to continue occupancy at a reasonable rent. The Lutheran church is using the sale proceeds to fund growth and outreach efforts, and its budget no longer has to support facility costs.
The Minneapolis Area Synod published a nice article about the arrangement.