DEVELOPING A CONSTRUCTION BUDGET

What comes first, the budget or the scope of work? Develop a good scope of work in order to have the project sent out for bid. However, the congregation should know how much they have to spend first.

Congregations have attempted to renovate structures into the most magnificent PraiseBuilding ever on a budget that could not even cover the basics. Whether working as a committee of one or fifty, the board is going to be the designer of the new house of worship.

The first step in designing the new PraiseBuilding is to create a wish list. The wish list is nothing more than listing every room one would like to have in the PraiseBuilding if money and space was no object. The purpose of this exercise is to put a value next to each of these items, as well as assign a priority to that item.

This priority listing will determine whether that line item makes it into the plans for the renovation after the construction budget has been prepared. The next step is to retain the services of an architect or design-build construction firm. If your project is located near a major city, there may be both architectural firms and construction companies that have as a specialty, the design and renovation of houses of worship.

RUNNING THE NUMBERS

It is important to have a finance committee that understands budgets and can help motivate the congregation in its fundraising efforts. From the time one begins raising funds for the purchase of the structure to be transformed into the PraiseBuilding, through design, construction and furnishing of the PraiseBuilding, this committee will be responsible for many hundreds of thousands or millions of dollars.

By Stephen Ferrandi, Director, KLNB Regious Properties

Stephen Ferrandi is the Director of KLNB Religious Properties, a real estate firm serving religioius clients in Maryland, D.C., Pennsylvania, and Virginia. He is one of the top experts in land development in the region. Mr. Ferrandi frequently contributes real estate related articles to both print and online publications.