Is it hard to get bank financing to buy and convert a church building into a place of business or a residence?
I saw a beatiful church for sale and was just idling thinking about a hypothetical situation in which I bought it and converted it into an office building? I just think that the drab boring office buildings probably aren't conducive to creativity or productivity and a lovely church might actually improve office moral. How hard would it be to get a bank to finance such a conversion? I know I'm dreaming either way, but could someone techically do this?
Answers ( 1 )
It would essentially come down to your local zoning ordinances and city council.
If the zoning is such that you can convert the church into whatever you want without further approval, then the bank would evaluate this in the same way as any other proposal to create an office.
If it requires a variance from the city council, they'd estimate how likely they thought this was based on what was typical for the area and apply that factor to their calculations.
If it'd amount to getting a new city ordinance passed to even consider it, they probably wouldn't be interested unless you could demonstrate you were going to get it done, or at least that you had the resources to.