A retired construction company owner is turning churches into housing developments, while a former Baptist church in southern Maine was recently turned into a $500,000 home.
These buildings that were once central to their communities are difficult to develop, but they are prime housing opportunities when done right. A growing number of churches across Maine are sitting decommissioned, vacant or abandoned in rural and urban areas.
That is because of a major societal shift. Catholics lost 31 percent of adherents in Maine between 1980 and 2010, according to census data. American Baptists have lost nearly half of adherents, while Episcopalians lost a whopping 43 percent.
Smaller congregations are meeting in more modern buildings unlike the historic churches of Maine past, leaving the future of these grand properties up to municipal planners. While some have been converted into commercial spaces, event venues or community centers, developers are increasingly looking at these properties to provide needed homes.
A few years ago, a former Catholic church on Cutts Avenue in Saco that was constructed in 1896 and deconsecrated in 2004 was going to be torn down and turned into a parking lot. That was before developer Bob Gaudreau intervened.
He converted the church into 47 units of housing. Next month, he will open an additional 33 units of senior housing in the church’s former parking lot. The rehab process was difficult, Gaudreau said, requiring imagination in laying out the rooms and $12 million to get it done.
“It’s good to see it reincarnated, see it preserved,” Gaudreau said. “Most cities and towns want to see reuse instead of watching it melt away.”
Gaudreau, a retired construction company owner, wants to make a habit of these sorts of projects, having completed a previous one in Portland. He’s passionate about seeing these spaces populated again, and said several towns — including Ellsworth and Lewiston — have contacted him about converting vacant churches in their towns into housing.
The likely candidates for this kind of church-to-housing conversion will be those in areas already zoned for high-density residential development, such as the downtown Saco example, or rural decommissioned churches that can become single-family homes without too much renovation. Churches made from brick or stone will be more expensive to rehab, Gaudreau noted.
Others are operating on a smaller scale. Two former churches, one in Stonington and one in Camden, have also been converted into housing and are now on the market. The one in Camden has been transformed into four condos. One unit is on AirBnB, but the others are year-round homes and one is available to lease now.
Like the apartments in Saco, the developer has repurposed the historic elements of the original church — stained glass windows, a pulpit and pews — into the renovated design.
“It’s our pride and joy,” Steve Winston, the condo’s owner, said.
In Standish, what was once the Oak Hill Chapel is now an upscale 2 bedroom, 2 bath single-family home on the market for $455,000. The chapel was renovated in the last five years and once belonged to a Baptist congregation that its listing agent, Nick Laverriere of Vista Real Estate, said is known as the Living Stone Community Church. They meet nearby at a smaller, modern building.
The converted church in Standish has the old charm of the chapel, but has been updated with modern amenities, Laverriere said. The original wood walls and wide pine floors of the church have been preserved, and the first floor ceiling is still 12-feet high.
The property was listed last Wednesday and had 40 showings between then and Monday, he said. A sale is now pending.
“There’s a wow factor,” Laverriere said.
