What Calvary Chapel Monrovia Wants to Do With Fourth Dimension Building

Calvary Chapel Monrovia is in escrow to purchase the Fourth Dimension building on Myrtle, right across from Library Park. I reported this as a possibility before, but have now confirmed it with Calvary Chapel Administrative Pastor Mike Antenesse. The escrow, he said, has contingencies, so it's not a done deal, but the church is hopeful.

Here's what Calvary Chapel hopes to do:

• Refurbish the front of the building so it is more in keeping with Old Town, sort of Fifties-ish style.
• Use the back of the building for the church, making the entrance off the alley in the back of the building. The church would not face Myrtle at all.
• Put two retail businesses facing Myrtle. One would be a family friendly bookstore with not only Christian books, but also children's books, home school materials, books on cooking, hobbies, travel, history, home and garden, etc. The other would be a coffee shop. Both businesses would be church-owned but would be taxed just like any other retail businesses.
• The main floor would be for services and the downstairs would be for classrooms.
• Parking would be at the five story Colorado Commons parking structure (mid-block on the north side of Colorado just west of Myrtle). Antenesse said there would be a shuttle service for those too infirm to walk the roughly three blocks, but he believes many of the 700-member congregation would walk and go to restaurants or a movie after church. And since Calvary Chapel is a "commuter church," he said, this should mean a lot of new people coming to town.
• Offer the building for city meetings, such as the State of the City message, and make it available for community organizations to rent.
• Work with the city doing programs in Library Park. He said the church doesn't want to start something separate but would like to use its experience with youth programs, tutoring and drug rehabilitation to assist existing efforts.

He said one Old Town merchant told him that if the 28,000 square foot property was used as a regular retail building operating during regular business days, that it would swamp the parking, but because it would be used primarily during low-traffic Sundays, it could be a boost to those businesses that are open Sundays.

Antenesse said the down payment for the building is "sizeable" and that the church is still $400,000 short, but he said the congregation is behind the effort and he is hopeful that the church can move in sometime this year.

- Brad Haugaard