The Mesa County Commissioners gave an incredible sweetheart deal to Faith Heights Church at 600 28 1/4 Road after buying the building for $8.6 million in March of 2023, forcing taxpayers to bear the loss of about over $200,000 worth of rent the county could have recouped for taxpayers during the first year of leasing out the building.
After purchasing (pdf) the 32,500 square foot building on its 11.7 acre parcel in March of 2023, the county leased it to the Faith Heights Church from March 30, 2023 – March 29, 2024 for a mere $1.00 per month, despite that the going rate for rent on a building of its size and quality was estimated at $214,000/year, or $17,833/month, forcing taxpayers to lose $213,988 in rent that year as an apparent favor to the church:
The next year’s lease tightened the deal up a bit, but still didn’t bring it up to market rate.
From May 1, 2024 – May 31, 2025 the county didn’t charge Faith Heights Church any rent at all, but in lieu of rent required the church to perform $149,000 worth of improvements to the property at its own expense, including upgrading the HVAC system, re-striping the parking lot and performing maintenance to the building, like repairing carpet and re-painting, at a cost of $149,000/year. This was the equivalent of $12,416/month in rent, or $5,417 under the market rate — still a nice deal, but not nearly big a giveaway as the first year.
The subsequent year’s lease, from May 1, 2025 – February 28, 2026 (when the lease is scheduled to end), the County required the church to make improvements up to a value of $160,500 over the 9 months of their remaining occupancy, an amount equivalent to the going market rental rate of $17,833/month.
Faith Heights Church is building a new building on 25 Road, and will move into it after their lease with the County ends on the 600 28 1/4 Road building, on Feb. 28, 2026.
The County had planned to move the offices now housed in the Mesa County Central Services Building on Spruce St. (like the Department of Motor Vehicles, Elections Office and County Recorder) to the 600 28 1/4 Road building, but recently changed its plans to instead expand the Justice Center downtown by about 100,000 square feet at an approximate cost of $3.7 million, according to the Daily Sentinel.
The County has not said what will happen with the 600 28 1/4 Road building after the current lease to the church concludes on February 28, 2026, but one thing is for certain: it will cost taxpayers a LOT to heat, cool and maintain the building and surrounding grounds without a paying tenant.
Was Janet Rowland involved in this?
The day after I read this story, news broke ICE buying large buildings to warehouse prisoners all around the country, leading me to think, hmmmm….
Good thought, Vicki, but just think of the “improvements” ICE would have to make to bring it to their standards for imprisoning those detained without warrant, trial, or transparency: No air-conditioning or heat, no windows, toilet facilities consisting of holes in the concrete floors, wire cages of all sizes, down to kindergarten-child size. And then, after ICE has been disbanded and its perpetrators are serving time in federal prisons, the former ICE concentration camp will be no more than a tragic scar on history, like Auschwitz.