A Letter to the Parish

Reprinted from the Emmanuel e-Letter, 3/2/07

Dear Fellow Parishioners,

It is with great pleasure that we announce that the vestry has accepted a contract and earnest money for the sale of the Cobb House. The decision was unanimous, and we are, frankly, delighted.

Before considering any offers, we took the initial step of summarizing the criteria for what we would call the best deal. We have been talking about what we needed and hoped for. It was agreed that these criteria would be used to evaluate all offers. They were:

• Price
• Buyer would allow time for the Twelve Step groups to find space to continue their work
• Allow Emmanuel to retain the area of that plat that we currently use as a playground
• Traffic calming
• A reputable buyer who would restore the home to its glory
• Residential use of the house
• A decision about the house sooner rather that later

The house and property were appraised at $550,000. Tom and I expect some of you will consider this low. The house is in terrible condition, has to be restored to the Historic Commission's standards, and will take at least a year to renovate well. All of this lowers the appraisal value.

The offer we accepted met all of our needs and hopes. Matthew Hicks has signed a contract with us to purchase the house for $500,000.00. He will contract with Bona Fide Construction to renovate it as a residence. He will give the Pope Street Association 6 months to acquire other meeting space. We can keep the playground. He has a realtor who will handle the sale for us for no commission, and he can close in cash within two weeks of the Twelve Step groups vacating the house.

We believe that the fulfillment of all our needs and hopes made this an offer that would be hard to improve upon.

Finally, we are pleased to say that the vestry voted to take a step in faith and Biblical generosity. We agreed to tithe from the sale price to the Pope Street Association as continued support for the life-saving work they do. We regret that we do not have accommodations for the number of meetings they have each week, but have faith that they will continue to walk in their good works.

Peace,

Robin M. Bewley Senior Warden

Tom Odom Junior Warden