Saturday, January 28, 2012

A Precedent???

We all know of the debacle that was the sale of University Lutheran Chapel property by the MNS District... well, it seems that others were watching and saw the potential to raise up funds and erase deficits by doing the same thing to their campus ministry properties and other properties owned by the District. 

The Pacific Southwest District has decided to possibly sell their campus ministry property (University Lutheran Chapel) at UCLA.  Apparently there is a need to offset a debt accrued by the Pacific Southwest District.  DP is Larry Stoterau.  Weigh in now before they sign on the dotted line...

BTW in general I do not think that we have done all that well in the real estate business.  We sold the Springfield campus for a song and then the person who bought did nothing to the property but realized a more than 100% return on his investment when he turned around and sold it to the State of Illinois.  If we are so savvy in the real estate business, why were we taken in there?  We sold a radio station (KFUO-FM) for a balloon payment mortgage and in effect became the finance agency for that group after failing to realize or utilize this asset.  And the list goes on. . . Maybe we should put out FIRE sale instead of FOR sale signs on our property...


4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Both the Springfield campus and
KFUO were sold in a panic mood.
Closing the Senior College and
converting it into a Seminary made
the Springfield campus extra baggage.
Nobody really had a plan to sell it.
Since the Springfield campus was in
a slum neighborhood nobody cared
about the price. They just wanted
to unload it. Closing Concordia
Senior College still haunts the
LCMS today.

Anonymous said...

When the LCMS puts something up for sale buyers already know it is a fire sale.

It goes without saying. The only ones who don't know are the district leaders.

Paul said...

The same Rev. Stoterau who led the charge on resturcturing in recent memory?

Anonymous said...

While the Education bubble is still at its peak, the LCMS should sell its secularized Concordias at market rate and use the money for an endowment to keep the seminaries funded. It should also use the money to build campus religious centers within walking distance of large public universities. Again and again, the LCMS makes the wrong decisions.