February 22, 2026, church members voted at a special churchwide meeting to demolish and replace the PCC Sanctuary and Hamilton Building. Both buildings need extensive and expensive hurricane repairs and updating to comply with current building and safety codes.
The church formed three committees representing more than two dozen members to evaluate which artifacts, furniture, electronic equipment, sheet music, and musical instruments should be preserved and what should be sold or rehomed. Another committee began improving the worship space in the LEC, which will be our worship home while PCC plans and builds a new worship center. A third long-range committee will help the congregation envision our collective mission statement and prioritize our ministries to reflect what we believe will serve God through serving our community.
The history of this decision
In 2022, the Pasadena Community Church membership voted overwhelmingly to move forward with plans to efficiently and effectively use our sizable property and acres of buildings under roof. Our vision for the future is shaped by our respect for the rich history of Pasadena Community Church’s dedication to serving God by serving our community.
The church offered more than five acres of property for sale. The two parcels include the vacant soccer field and the property that is the current home for the PCC Preschool. Contracts were let for the sale of those properties. One property sale closed in 2025; the other will close later in 2026. The proceeds from those sales paid for the updates and repairs of the Life Enrichment Center, which will become the new home for the PCC Preschool late in 2026 or at the start of 2027.
We are modernizing our entire campus to meet 21st century technology & sensitivities while keeping and respecting church traditions. The new preschool campus will be ADA-compliant and accessible to students, teachers, and staff with differing physical abilities. This plan allows us to be welcoming to all.
We believe that Methodism requires us to be good stewards of our resources.
Our aging buildings need extensive, expensive upgrades. By a vote of 90%, the church membership decided to realign our needs and plans with our resources.
The original plans called for the renovation of the Hamilton Building and the Sanctuary. But 2024 hurricane damage and subsequent engineering reports forced the church to vote to shift its plans and reimagine a different way forward.
The plans adopted in 2025 were based on plans to:
-Provide a more secure and updated Christian-based pre-school that maintains current enrollment figures and meets/exceeds safety and accreditation standards.
-Imagine a Worship Center/Sanctuary that is accessible and welcoming. A new worship center would include classrooms, spaces for youth programs, and would be useful 7 days a week, not just a few hours a week for worship. Many church members have expressed a desire to include a chapel in a new building.
The church offices will remain in the LEC. The original plans included moving them to another building, but the updated LEC plans keep the offices in the LEC securely locked away from the preschool functions.
Sports programs, including community pickleball and youth basketball, will continue, although they may be interrupted sometimes by construction in the LEC.
All decisions about the future of buildings and plans must be approved by church member votes and are overseen by the Church Council.
Why can’t we stay in the Sanctuary until we have a new worship center?
To get back into the sanctuary safely would require nearly $2 million in facade repairs. The City of St. Petersburg declared the building to be unsafe until repairs are completed. Those immediate repairs are just a small portion of all of the expenses that would be needed to make the sanctuary functional again. All told, the sanctuary requires at least $12 million in repairs and upgrades. (Hurricane windows, basement water leaks, cracked concrete, AC replacement, new roof, and more.)
PCC spends about $200,000 a year on air conditioning the (now) unused sanctuary, plus paying for insurance, fire and security protection and other maintenance.
The Church Council and Discernment Committee estimates it will take +/- 3 years (2028?) to:
1- Close the sale of the second parcel and get the money in hand that will pay for the bulk of the next construction
2-Engage with a consultant who will guide church visioning on church priorities that shape the decisions on what a new worship center should include
3-Solicit design proposals and gather bids
4- Raise whatever funds would be necessary to fund the new building (we will have about $6.5 million on hand after the second parcel sale, but that would not likely be enough to pay for a new worship center that is 12,000-15,000 sq ft, just to use ballpark figures.
5- Award a construction contract
6-Construct the new building and move in
pccforward.org 