Owner Ershig says there’s no contract; he’s going to continue to look for lessees for his properties
A video that Henderson’s First Baptist Church has posted on its Facebook page says that members of the church have voted to pursue the purchase of properties on First Street and Green Street that border its campus—one of which is the Wolf’s Tavern building.
The owner of the properties, Harvey Ershig, however, said that he has only had a conversation with church officials about the properties, and there is currently no deal in the works.
“I have never executed any documents with the First Baptist Church. Zero. I have never accepted money from the First Baptist Church. None,” he said.
In fact, Ershig said he has just executed a year lease with another tenant on one of the properties that First Baptist mentioned in its video. And it’s business as usual obtaining tenants for his properties.
The Rev. Sam Hinkson, the church’s senior pastor, told the Hendersonian that acquiring property is a part of its Next Initiative, which lays a 15-year blueprint for what First Baptist hopes to accomplish.
Hinkson said the properties the church is interested in span from the building next to Groves Law Office northeast to Green Street—a total of four listed properties on the Henderson County Property Valuation Administrator’s website.
Included in what the church wants is a property at 23 N. Green St., which is identified as Assurance Consulting & Testing Solution, and the building likely to draw the most interest from the community—the old Wolf’s Tavern building, a Henderson landmark that has been standing in that spot since the 19th century.
Hinkson said in the video that the church is attempting to raise $2.15 million in the next three months “in order to form the foundation of the money we’re going to need in order to execute the contract.”
But, again, Ershig and daughter, Molly Galloway, said that there is no contract. Galloway said, “We haven’t done a thing except have a conversation.”
Ershig said he still has lessees in some of those buildings and is still going about his business looking for someone to lease the Wolf’s building. He said if a capable business wanted to lease the Wolf’s building, for example, for 15 years, he’d do it.
In the meantime, in the First Baptist Church video, which is titled, “Next—Property Acquisition,” church officials say they are making four major facility commitments.
Those include:
- Giving the church’s sanctuary a facelift to accommodate sound and lighting needs
- Repurposing the current student building—when student ministry expands, need to repurpose
- Constructing an additional building, which will allow the church to expand student and children ministry
- Purchasing adjacent properties
According to the video, the congregation voted on Oct. 20 to pursue the purchase.
Hinkson said a major push of the church is to construct a much larger space that a greater percentage of the congregation can gather in. He said the church holds a large Christmas service that it must hold at the Preston Arts Center on the campus of Henderson Community College because the church’s sanctuary won’t hold the number that attend that gathering.
He said, “It would be nice to have on our campus.”
The pastor also spoke about the church’s school, Arrow Classical Education, which serves students up to fourth grade; First Kids preschool program; and Henderson Hope for Kids, an afterschool program that aims to assist children falling behind in school with tutoring and other help. The church also works closely with New Genesis, the jail ministry and aftercare program at the Henderson County Detention Center.
“We’re just not optimized to accommodate all these,” Hinkson said.
Ershig said that church officials have spoken to him many times through the years about buying adjacent property, and it always fizzles out.
“We haven’t signed anything at this time,” he said. “It’s just talk. It’s talk that’s been going on for a long time.”
