(Concept for what you’d see turning off California onto Hill)

By Tracy Record
West Seattle Blog editor

Before the West Seattle Big Band‘s Christmas concert Sunday (WSB coverage here) in the Admiral Church sanctuary, the church’s pastor Rev. Andrew Conley-Holcom told the full house that it had special meaning: This is the church’s final Advent season before moving out so its half-acre site can be transformed into housing and a “new church,” including space for the many community groups that gather there.

We followed up to find out the newest details about their moving plans, as nothing specific was mentioned when last we updated the future Homestead Community Land Trust project after a community open house in June.

The church will be co-housed with another Admiral congregation, St. John the Baptist Episcopal Church, during construction, Rev. Conley-Holcom told WSB. “St. John’s is a warm, loving community with which we have been developing relationship for years, so this will be an easy, comfortable arrangement even as it represents a drastic change for both congregations.”

Admiral Church expects to move out of its current site this summer, the pastor explains, “for a few reasons, the greatest of which was made abundantly clear last night during the deluge. The building is facing pretty serious water penetration issues that can be linked to original design flaws with the current structure (downspouts concealed within the walls of the sanctuary which cannot be unclogged without risking rupture into the walls of the building). We are engaging with professionals for mitigation, but are not going to make major repairs for obvious reasons.”

The “rolling” move will start once the preschool that shares the church’s site, A Child Becomes, finishes its 2024-2025 school year – that’s when, the pastor says, “we will begin shutting the building down until HCLT is ready to take possession and begin demolition.” (A Child Becomes has its own new location.)

If you need to catch up on the backstory – Admiral Church chose redevelopment as the best path toward a sustainable future; trying to fix the (as mentioned above) deteriorating old building was not an option. They finalized a partnership plan with Homestead CLT in 2023. They plan 21 for-sale housing units – 13 townhouses and 8 condos, a mix of affordable and market-rate – as well as a new mixed-use building for the church and its programs. Kathleen Hosfeld of Homestead CLT tells WSB that they still hope to complete construction in 2026, but “construction start times and completion depend a lot on funding.” (Earlier this year, a city grant was announced for part of the funding.)