Batavia Ready to Sell First Baptist Church for Mixed-Use Development

The city of Batavia is set to sell the First Baptist Church property, and it will no longer require the bidder to preserve or adapt the church building.

The city will hold a pre-submittal conference at 3 p.m. Dec. 12 to determine which bidders might qualify to adapt the 2.2-acre parcel at the northwest corner of Route 25 and Wilson Street to a mixed-use development.

In the city's request for qualifications, Assistant City Administrator Jason Bajor said prospective developers won't have to save the historic church building. 

"The City Council has concluded that the City will not necessarily require that a proposal to acquire and redevelop the subject property include measures to preserve, rehabilitate and incorporate the Church building, all or in part," Bajor wrote.

The city of Batavia’s City Administrator’s Office will accept sealed statements of qualifications until 4 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17.

Previous incarnations of the plan had called for a combination of town homes, condominiums and lofts, but also hoped to keep the existing church building, which dates back to 1889.

The city bought the property in June 2006. It owns some adjacent properties currently used for public parking. There also are two privately-owned parcels fronting Wilson Street "that we expect to include in a redevelopment project of the entire area," the city said.

The city is hoping to establish a private/public partnership in creating an appropriate and sustainable private, mixed-use redevelopment of the properties.

Read More

• Should Batavia's Former First Baptist Church Be Saved?

• Request for Qualifications
• Update: First Baptist Church Redevelopment Planning ("Friedman report") dated November 30, 2009
• City of Batavia Comprehensive Plan
• City of Batavia Historic Preservation Design Guidelines