Union Hill church building to be converted to apartments beside 19 new townhomes

The Great Hope Baptist Church building at Venable and 21st streets would be converted into 19 apartments as part of a plan to fill the rest of its property with 19 townhomes. (BizSense file photo)

A plan to add townhomes beside a Union Hill church now includes a potential conversion of the church building into apartments.

A development plan was filed earlier this year to turn the Great Hope Baptist Church building at 2101 Venable St. into 19 apartments, with no changes to be made to the building’s exterior.

The project would add to a previous plan for new townhomes to be built in the church parking lots at 2111-2119 Venable St. and at 810-812 N. 22nd St. The number of planned townhomes has been reduced since that plan was first submitted last year, from 20 units originally to 19 now.

Fifteen of the townhomes would replace the half-acre lot along Venable, while four units would replace the smaller 22nd Street lot across Burton Street.

A recent site plan shows the 15 townhomes in the Venable Street lot, where a previously planned unit is replaced with parking spaces. The 22nd Street units also were reoriented to front 22nd instead of Burton Street. (City documents)

All of the properties are owned by Great Hope Baptist Church, which has been working with developer UrbanCore Construction on the effort. Walter Parks Architects is designing the apartments, and Keel Custom Homes has been lined up to develop the townhomes, which are being designed by Chris Wolf Architecture.

The apartments would fill the basement and first and second floors of the 20,000-square-foot church building, which was constructed in 1940. Plans show part of the church sanctuary would become a nearly 4,000-square-foot commercial space for amenities for residents.

Ten of the apartments would be one-bedroom, one-bathroom units averaging 630 square feet in size, while seven would be 450-square-foot studios and two would be two-bedroom, two-baths averaging 880 square feet, according to the plans that were submitted in February.

A site plan for the church building’s middle level shows some of the apartments as well as part of the sanctuary as commercial space.

As of Monday, the apartments plan was listed as pending review by city planning staff.

Meanwhile, the plans for the townhomes received approval last week by the Commission of Architectural Review following multiple deferrals and design changes since they first appeared on its docket in November. The changes addressed concerns from the commission about the three-story townhomes’ appearance and height.

The townhomes are now planned to vary in height between the three-unit clusters at the Venable site and the two-unit clusters, which will be slightly shorter. Some of the units have two-story facades with recessed third floors, and front porches and second-story balconies have been added to facades, along with other variations in the townhomes’ appearance.

Updated elevations for the townhomes show the variations in building heights.

Will Gillette with Baker Development Resources provided representation on the townhome applications, and Bowman Consulting Group handled engineering work.

It isn’t clear when construction on the townhomes could start. Calls to Keel principal Casey White and to Great Hope Baptist Church were not returned Monday afternoon. Attempts to reach UrbanCore principal Jeff Bunch were unsuccessful.

The project adds to other infill developments in the works in that area. At the same CAR meeting last week, developer Daniil Kleyman’s Evolve Development received a nod from the commission for a two-story building with seven apartments at 812-814 N. 21st St., about half a block north of the church.

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