Proposed Residence Hall

• Security is one of the primary concerns for everyone involved in the project.  The building committee is working hard with Newchapter and the architect to design a facility that will keep its residents safe.  Newchapter has even engaged a professional security consultant to ensure that the proper steps are taken to make sure this is a safe place to live.  We have also created our own safety and security committee to look at this issue.  This will include specific attention to how entryways and other methods of access to the building will help keep the "bad guys" out.  Other areas of security being explored are keyed entry cards, emergency intercoms, alarm systems, proper lighting, visual barriers, etc.  This building will be as secure for residents, if not more secure than the ASU residence halls.
• Staffing:  the building will be staffed according to ASU's standards and beyond.  There will be one live-in community assistant per forty students and a full-time, live-in, hall director that will live on the ground floor.  The hall director will also have office hours 9-5, M-F in the building.  The campus minister's office will also be located in the building on the ground floor.  A staff person or staff persons will be available in the building 24 hours per day.

• It will be made crystal clear to residents that they are not to use the church's parking lot and their family and friends are not to park there unless they want to pay our parking fee for parking during the day.  ASU provides ample overnight parking that guests of residence will be directed to.  There are ASU lots near the church that charge by the day and are free to park in during nights and weekends.  Any residents and visitors who park in the church lot will be towed.  This is in-line with our current parking lot policy.  We are familiar with this problem since, currently, many people attempt to park in our lot without paying or park overnight on Saturday nights, and these persons are towed from our lot when discovered.

• Once we sign the lease, which will occur before construction, our lease rate will be locked in.  Any additional costs added to construction along the way will be covered by Newchapter and the lease rate will not increase.

• The project will terminate.  The church will owe nothing to Newchapter.

• The project will terminate.  The church will owe nothing to Newchapter.

• The project will primarily be staged along Forest Ave. where the ASU handicapped parking is located.  The church actually owns that half of Forest Ave and ASU leases those spaces from the church.  ASU has officially agreed not to lease these spaces for the next year during construction.  The contractor has also assured us they will only be bringing materials on site when needed in order to keep the staging area small.  There are times the parking lot may be used for things such as contractor parking and occasionally for materials, however, the contractor has already agreed to compensate the church for the parking spaces they use.  Every effort will also be made to ensure that the full parking lot is available to church members on Sunday morning.
• Without a doubt this project will have a major impact on our church during construction.  We are working with the developer and contractor to make this period as painless as possible, however, we are sure there will be some headaches.  Upon completion, however, the church will have an amazing new building for campus ministry, a brand new "Fireside Lounge," and a beautiful new courtyard and patio area.

• This is another area we are paying close attention to.  This building will not negatively impact the services we provide for the homeless population. In fact, we hope residents of the building will volunteer to help out with our Urban Outreach ministry.  As part of the security plan we will be looking at how Urban Outreach guests enter and exit the property and we may work with Urban Outreach to assign additional volunteers to be present in areas near the residence hall during Urban Outreach programs, such as Potter's House and the shower program.

• Obviously we do not expect this to ever be an issue.  If we reached that point, however, we would have a few options.  First, funds we had hoped to put towards Wesley programming would be used.  Second, we plan to raise at least $50,000 in contingency funds to help cover unexpected lease shortfalls.  Also, the lease will have a provision that allows a one time annual lease adjustment to help give us time to re-organize and try to fill any vacancy that would make us unable to pay the lease.  Again, these are all scenarios we see as unlikely, however, we want to be prepared for any situation.
• If we exhausted all other possibilities and are unable to make the lease payment then the investor group would assume management of the building.  This is a worst case scenario and avoiding this situation depends on strong management of the building from The Wesley Foundation, Newchapter, and the new building's board of directors.

• The lease will be a forty-year lease, however, after year one of occupancy, Tempe First UMC has the opportunity to buy the building.  There are many advantages to doing this and we will look at perusing this option within year one.  It is advantageous for the church to buy the building before year six, as the lease rate increases every five years.  If the church does not buy the building before the end of the lease, then the building can be purchased for $1 at the end of year forty.

• 100% NO.  Property management of the building will be fully handled by Newchapter.  This includes leasing, rent collection, custodial and maintenance.  The full-time community director will liaison between students, Newchapter and the maintenance and custodial companies Newchapter works with.  Most of this will be handled through and online portal where students can make rent payments and maintenance requests.  These are standard procedures for how modern college residence halls handle property management.  All of the costs for this are included in the estimated building expenses.  

• The building will carry its own insurance policy, the cost of which has been included in the estimated expenses.
• As is the case now, the church is typically only liable for someone getting hurt on the rest of the church property if it can be shown that the church was negligent and could have prevented a harmful situation.  The church also carries its own liability insurance.

• So far, we have engaged three different lawyers.  David Withey is a member of TFUMC and has served on the building committee from its inception.  We have also had The Desert Southwest Annual Conference legal representation scrutinize this project. Finally, we have engaged a lawyer who specializes in working with churches and non-profits to help us setup the new non-profit which will have oversight of the building.  We will continue to work will all of these lawyers every step of the way, especially when it comes to reviewing the lease agreement with the investor group.

• We have been in close contact with ASU's director of residence life, Michael Coakley, throughout this project.  So far, he has been extremely supportive and has offered us guidance on how to offer the best residential experience for students.  From his perspective he believes this is a very exciting project.  He has even offered to allow our staff to attend their residence staff training sessions at no cost.

• The Tempe First UMC building committee who was specially elected to work on this project.
• CDS Marketing- an independent market research firm who also did the market research study for the Barrett Honors Residential college at ASU.
• The Central East District committee on building and location which includes architects, financial experts, and pastors.
• Bishop Minerva Carcano of the Desert Southwest Annual Conference.
• Michael Coakley, director of Arizona State University Department of Residence Life
• The Wesley Foundation at ASU Board of Directors
• All four district superintendents of the Desert Southwest Annual Conference, including former DS Sharon Ragland and new DS Bob Burns.
• Rev.Rob Rynders and Rev. Dave Summers
• The students of The Wesley Foundation at ASU
• The members of Tempe First UMC voted on July 7, 2010 to move into the final design phase of this project.

Residence Hall

 Residence Hall

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