Things were very different in San Diego when the North Park Baptist Church was founded 100 years ago.
Horses mingled with primitive automobiles, aircraft, then in their infancy, had begun buzzing overhead, and the grid of homes in the neighborhood slowly began filling in, including along Bancroft Street and North Park Way.
The church, which settled onto its North Park Way campus in the '30s, has seen many changes in the intervening century, of course, but none may be so dramatic as what seems to be taking shape across the street.
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The church, which merged with the Makers Church more than three years ago, has entered into the sale of a slew of properties along Bancroft Street and the alley behind it.
Our changing city
According to a neighbor, the small craftsman-style bungalows and a single multi-unit structure were occupied until about a year ago, when their occupants were pushed out or left, and rumors began to swirl of a sale. Nature abhors a vacuum, of course, and the Bancroft Street dwellings soon fell prey to squatters, homeless people who began to break into the buildings, doing drugs on the porches and creating a nuisance and safety issues for the nearby neighbors.
“I used to see the police coming a few times at night,” Angie Martinez, another neighbor who has lived in North Park for more than two decades, told NBC 7 in July. "It started getting very dirty, noise, and the neighbors started calling the police because at one point it was getting out of hand."
Makers Church pastor Derrick Miller said in a statement this summer that the city was working with the people who were illegally living in the empty homes to find shelter in a city-sanctioned facility.
Soon thereafter, a fence went up along the property on Bancroft Street, which mitigated, at least to some extent, the problem.
Then, earlier this week, a newer fence went up, a neighbor told NBC 7, this one on all four sides of the Makers Church Bancroft Street property, from North Park Way down five residences to 3760 Bancroft, then over to the alley and back up again to North Park Way. The chain-link fence with the blue screen obstructing views of the five single-family detached homes and one duplex seemed much more serious, and, when two large yellow demolition vehicles from San Diego's demo king, AMG, showed up, things even more real.
And finally, on Wednesday, the Makers Church made it official in a news release:
"Makers Church will sell off a sizable portion of its North Park campus — specifically the 35,000 [square feet] of residential land on Bancroft Sreet comprised of six vacant homes. Demolition on the homes will take place on Monday, Nov. 13. The transaction is currently in escrow and expected to close with an undisclosed buyer at the end of the year."
It's all happening very quickly: The demolition permit appears to have applied less than two weeks ago. In the news release, the church said, "Demolition on the homes will take place on Monday, Nov. 13." On Monday, though, a spokesperson said the site was being prepped on Monday, with the actual demolition taking place on Tuesday or Wednesday.
The church said in the same news release that it planned to use the funds raised by the sale for extensive renovations on the church facilities, including nuts-and-bolts repairs to things like HVAC but also plans to open a 1,000-square-foot cafe on-site that would be open to the public as well as an event venue that could be used for private events in addition to live performances, including some by music acts. Also on tap: a 10,000-square-foot child-care facility.
That plan will remind San Diegans with somewhat long memories of the Irenic, which was located in the Missiongathering Church on Polk Avenue in North Park and hosted many live performances booked by the Casbah and Soda Bar. That church fell to the wrecking ball in the past few years.
NBC 7 reached out Friday to the Makers Church for a comment on the project but was told nobody was available until Monday to discuss the pending sale. On Monday, the spokesperson said nobody would be available until Tuesday.
At this point, the future of the properties on Bancroft Way is unclear, but Jessica Wagner, who is affiliated with a group and website called Stop Makers Church and who lives in the neighborhood, told NBC 7 on Friday that after she began posting on Instagram about the site, officials from the church approached her for a meeting, which she said both she, Miller and others attended.
During that discussion, Wagner told NBC 7, she showed church officials a photo that she said was posted on a website called CedarSt.com, a self-described "fully integrated real estate company that delivers best-in-class services across development, construction, management, and hospitality." Wagner said the architect's rendering had a caption that said Bancroft Street and showed an 8-story steel-and-glass building with a central courtyard and pool that would appear to be configured to a lot similar to the one that would be left vacant on the block after demolition. In the image, across the street at one side, is a building that appears similar to the Makers Church, including a three-story tower with a cross affixed to it.
Wagner told NBC 7 that the architect's rendering was taken down two weeks ago.
NBC 7 reached out to Cedar St. on Friday but has yet to hear back. It's entirely possible, of course, that the rendering is no longer accurate.
Wagner, however, said that the Makers Church official confirmed that the building in the rendering was, in fact, what was being proposed for the site by the developers.
Among other topics discussed at that meeting, according to Wagner: Parking. The North Parker said she was told that the church officials shared her concerns about parking in the neighborhood post-construction. The church, in fact, owns another property, this one catty-corner from the church and across Bancroft Street, that features another small building and a lot with 23 parking spots. The rendering of the apartment complex shows an entrance for what appears to be an underground garage, but how many spots that might hold is unknown.
What many are wondering, also, in today's extremely tight housing market, is: How many residential units would be in any replacement structure or structures, and what percentage of those would be affordable? In Wednesday's news release, the church may have offered a window into the future:
"In alignment with Makers Church's mission to serve all sectors of the community, church leaders have taken steps to ensure that the future developer will offer a diverse range of housing options, with a particular focus on accommodating those at low- and middle-income levels."
Without details from the developer, it's difficult to know how that will translate to reality. The rendering, however, with its pool and rooftop garden appears more like a high-end apartment complex.
No matter how any new structure or structures look, they're likely to be the biggest change that corner of North Park has seen in a hundred years.
