Update

We have begun to meet with lenders to secure the financing for our project. So far we've meet with 4 local lenders and there are two out of town we still need to meet with. The terms look good but we are told it's difficult for churches to get the necessary funding in this current economic climate. I believe God is in control and I'm not worried about crosspoint getting the resources we require. Thanks to your generous support we've been able to pay for over $330,000 in project expenses. The two largest expenses are the architect and parking. We've only paid for half of the parking project while we are awaiting completion before we pay the 2nd half.


Here is the short list of what we are waiting on.
The Plat to be registered with the City of Cibolo. It is currently in their hands to be approved.
Value Engineering on the overall construction costs. We need to get the original bid down from 2.7 million to as close as possible to 2.2 million.
Secured financing.


It is possible for all these to be in place before the end of the year. And once this happens we can sign on the dotted line and get this project started!

We've gone through round one of VE (Value Engineering) where the contractor identified obvious areas that could save us money. With only a little over $100K identified, we haven't trimmed nearly enough off of the expense to make the expansion "affordable." In this new economy money is scarce. Lenders aren't giving based on what we can afford but more in line with what they can afford to risk. And who can blame them. We are meeting with our selected contractor, The Struthoff Company, on Oct. 13th to identify more areas for VE as well as identify possible areas to reduce the scope of the project. Over the next several weeks we will also be aggressively pursuing lenders to find the best match for us.

The Plat will be applied for on October 14th. It could take until Dec. 28th to get it recorded if there aren't any issues. There are a series of hoops that have to be jumped through before it can be recorded with the City of Cibolo.

In case you missed my update I gave at church on September 26, we are believing that our expansion project will begin before the spring. This is so much later than I would have imagined. I'm learning just how long of a project something like this is. But once we begin, the project is scheduled to take 12 months as long as there are no big delays with bad weather.

Keep praying and thanks for being patient and supporting our project.

Parking Spaces

The pre-construction parking is done! We now have more pavement for more people! We will continue to use the secondary entrance for parking off pavement. For some it's more convenient and for others it is a sacrifice they are willing to make so first time guests feel like we have room for them. Tonight our BOD meets to review the bids for the construction. With firm bids we are now able to approach lending institutes to get the necessary financing. There is no new news on the platting of our property and this is the next hurdle.

Rain, Rain go away...

...come back when our parking lot is finished. The rain has delayed the completion of our parking lot. The only thing left is to put down tar and asphalt, install tire stops, and striping. Soon we will have this much needed additional space! (We've had 70 cars parking on the grass.) Our water issue appears to be resolved. We don't have anything in writing but we have been given a workable solution verbally. Now our civil engineer is working up the design in AutoCAD. There are still some hoops to jump through with the city of Cibolo and it could take up to 90 days for the solution to be official and to get our plat recorded. The Board of Directors (BOD) will meet later this month to review our Bids that were submitted to the architect last week. Stay tuned and I'll keep you posted.

Hey Bidder Bidder, Bidder...

This week our project is finally going out to bid! This means seven general contractors will give us their competitive bid to build our Phase One construction. This is a huge accomplishment. The bids will come back the first half of September. The water issue still isn't settled yet. While this will hold up construction it won't hold up bidding. Until now all cost estimates have been speculative based on the square footage. We have been anxiously awaiting this stage. It is nice to have some traction lately. We are making progress on parking and now on the bidding. Hopefully the next place we will have traction is getting an affordable water solution for our site.

Paving the way toward expansion

We signed a contract this week to get our parking expansion rolling. You might have noticed the change in overflow parking last week and this will continue for a few weeks. We anticipate if weather cooperates to have our additional parking in place around the 1st of August. This will also include the water detention dam in the lower area of our property. Concerning the new worship center construction we are still working on a solution for water supply. We have been given a cost analysis to get a greater supply of water from both Cibolo (our current water provider) and Schertz. Our greatest need for water is safety in case of a fire. We also have to comply with the current regulations for GPS (Gallons Per Second) based on how our buildings are coded. As soon as we settle this we can get our plat registered. Once our plat is registered we can apply for the building permit. Thank you for continuing to ask about where things stand. Your interest is encouraging! August and September are going to present the phase of our growing pains as we will experience larger crowds than we ever have before. Keep inviting and we will keep making room for more. Lets change some lives!!!

The Latest

Our architectural plans are still being reviewed by Cibolo. Our plat review hasn't officially begun yet. Additionally, we've been looking for an alternative solution to supply our water needs. The talks have only been preliminary at this point. The parking expansion - I really am surprised at the hoops we are having to jump through for pavement. We've had two different reports indicating that we would have already started (if not completed) adding nearly 60 parking spaces. The news we received last week says we are still 2 weeks away from starting. If we aren't dealing with bad weather the parking expansion should take four to five weeks from start to finish.

Join me in praying for these various phases. I'm learning more about commercial construction than I would even want to know. The delays are taking their toll, but I'm beginning to think there are more delays ahead than I can predict. Thank you for your faithful support in our BELIEVE Expansion Project. Keep the faith.