By SHANNON HAUGLAND
Sentinel Staff Writer
Two Sitka families have announced they have purchased the First Presbyterian Church property, and plan to develop the building and its nearly one-acre site for apartments and a complex of small houses.
The plan calls for preserving the “sanctuary section of the property, while using beams from the attached two-story building to build (loft-style apartments),” said the new owners, Tripp and Sherry LaRose and Brendan and Rachel Jones.
The rest of the church buildings will be taken down. Materials from the those buildings will be “re-purposed” to create a pocket neighborhood of one- and two-story houses for rent, they said.
The church, at 505 Sawmill Creek Road, has been vacant since the congregation, facing declining membership and other problems, closed it in July 2018.
The LaRose and Jones families received title to the property on Feb. 5 and announced their plans on Monday.
Tripp LaRose, owner of LaRose Construction, said in a news release that the new owners, doing business as Stowaway Enterprises, are committed to building “sustainable, eco-friendly, downtown homes for the Sitka community.”
The LaRose and Jones families gather in front of a real estate sign at the former Presbyterian Church on Sawmill Creek Boulevard Tuesday. The families purchased the church and have plans that include keeping the chapel and adding a housing development on the nearly one-acre lot . Pictured are, from left, Rachel Jones holding baby Quinn; Haley Marie Jones, 5; Keeley LaRose, 16; Brendan Jones holding Kiera-Lee Jones, 4; Sherry LaRose; Cadence LaRose, 11, holding dog; Tripp LaRose and Ryatt LaRose, 14. (Sentinel Photo by James Poulson)
Brendan Jones said the general plan calls for re-purposing the sanctuary for residential use – while preserving the church structure – and creating a “pocket neighborhood” of small one- and two-story houses for long-term rentals on the rest of the property.
“To this end, Stowaway Enterprises has joined forces with Joshua Otto, a principal at Philadelphia-based Otto Architects LLC, a firm with a history of renovating historic churches,” the announcement said.
The news release said a pocket neighborhood is a planned community consisting of smaller residences built around a central courtyard and green space, with parking space on the perimeter.
City Planning Director Amy Ainslie said today that city code allows as many as 24 dwelling units to be built on a tract as large as the one-acre church property.
Brendan Jones said today that the team doesn’t know the exact number of units that will be built. Parking is one important consideration, he said.
The news release described the homes as “single-family, built in close proximity, designed to maximize green space.”
“Stowaway Enterprises is working closely with the city, which allows for Planned Unit Developments (PUDs). This would accommodate the eco-friendly development,” the announcement said. Jones said today that the additions to the church building will be removed, but that structural timbers will be re-purposed in the new construction. Also, he said, the owners would like to use “locally sourced wood” from Southeast.
The news release cited some of the history of the church.
“The First Presbyterian Church convened its first congregation on the campus of Sheldon Jackson Junior College on September 7, 1884. In 1953, the congregation called upon the architect Linn Forrest to design a larger building about a quarter mile from the Sheldon Jackson campus,” the release said. Forrest designed the Mendenhall Glacier Visitor Center in Juneau, and the Timberline Lodge on Oregon’s Mt. Hood – notable for serving as the exterior of the Overlook Hotel in Stanley Kubrick’s “The Shining.”
Since the church closed in July 2018, the buildings have been used by various non-profits, often food-related, including Sitka Kitch. Attached structures include a multi-purpose social gathering space, a meeting room with fireplace, an office area, and an upstairs area with large, sunlit rooms. The church had been for sale for more than a year, before Stowaway Enterprises closed the deal with the Washington-based Presbyterian officials in charge of the sale.
“There was a lot of interest in the building and there were multiple offers,” said broker Travis Vaughan, from ReMax Baranof Realty, who represented the seller in the deal. “So many different groups had so many visions for what they could do with the property. I was so impressed - many ideas, and they were all wonderful uses that people proposed.”
The new owners plan to break ground on their new project this fall.
“We see immense possibilities to continue the work that First Presbyterian started,” Brendan Jones said in the announcement. “Our goal is to create a ... sustainable community with attractive, smaller homes built of locally sourced wood. Sitka will have a model neighborhood for the rest of Alaska.”
He said specific plans will be dependent on whether the property, currently zoned R-2, is authorized for a “Planned Unit Development,” which allows denser development than specified for residential zones.
Jones said Unity Homes in New Hampshire, and Hamill Creek in British Columbia, have expressed interest in providing air-tight timber-framed units built to “Passive House” standards. He also envisions charging stations for electric vehicles and solar and wind electrical generation on the property.
“With its downtown location, and views of the ocean and mountains, there are so many possibilities,” Rachel Jones said in the project announcement. “We appreciate the Presbyterian Church for trusting us to achieve a use for this historically significant land, one that will best serve the community that built, maintained, and stood by this institution over the course of the last century.”
Planning Director Ainslie told the Sentinel Wednesday that she has not seen any formal plans for the new development, but that the owners have approached the planning department for guidance on zoning and development regulations.
“The planning department was very excited to hear about the development plans for the property,” Ainslie said. “It’s been on the market for a while and under-utilized for a number of years. Seeing someone come up with plans for investing in Sitka is always a good thing. We’re still in the early stages but we’re definitely interested in seeing what they come up with.”
“Both the Jones and LaRose families raise children, puppies, and chickens a stone’s throw from the church,” the project announcement said. “Jones was a general contractor in Philadelphia for seven years, founding Greensaw Design & Build, which specialized in building with reclaimed material. He teaches writing at Stanford University and University of Alaska Southeast.
Tripp LaRose is the owner of LaRose Construction, and coaches a Sitka youth football team. Sherry LaRose taught at Ventures, which took place at the church, before joining SEARHC as a pharmaceutical technician II. She also coached Sitka High and Blatchley Middle School drill teams.
Rachel Jones was a state magistrate in Sitka for three years, and is presently a board member of the Sitka Community Land Trust.
