A last-ditch attempt to save church

PROVO — A group of preservationists made a major last-ditch effort Monday night to save a Spanish-style Catholic Church building in Provo.

Meanwhile, allegations flew back and forth as the sides prepared for a critical meeting tonight before the Provo City Council.

The nonprofit Historic Provo Preservation Foundation offered $1.2 million directly to the new bishop of the Salt Lake Diocese on Monday night for the empty church building on the corner of 500 West and 200 North, said Tom Heal, the foundation's real estate consultant.

"It's as firm an offer as anybody can make," Heal said. "That is very significant because everybody has been skeptical whether the foundation had the ability to raise the funds."

The offer included a $50,000 check intended as earnest money.

Today is the deadline imposed by the City Council for the foundation to raise enough money to satisfy the Catholic Church.

The church already had an offer from a developer willing to pay $1.2 million contingent on being able to tear down the building and put up condominiums. He can't tear down the church if it stays on the city's landmarks register.

The local parish asked the City Council in February to remove the building from the register. The parish needs the cash to build a new church in Orem.

The St. Francis of Assisi parish moved out of the Provo building seven years ago. Since then, parishioners have worshipped in Orem in a gymnasium they built next to the site where they planned to construct a new church.

The money from the sale of the old church would give them 60 percent of the project's cost, the amount that triggers permission to build in the Catholic Church.

The council refused the request by a 4-3 vote, but it created a 54-day deadline for preservationists to make an offer that would satisfy the church.

The foundation successfully built an organization in that time, spokeswoman Linda Walton said.

"We want to get the money to the Catholic church so they can finish their chapel," she said, "and we want to save the building and turn it into an arts or civic center."

If church rejects the foundation's offer, the foundation plans to ask the City Council for more time when it meets tonight at 7, Walton said.

During the meeting, the council will reconsider the parish's request to remove the building from the register.

The foundation first offered the developer $750,000 for about half of the property, sources on both sides confirmed.

The idea of splitting the property was the idea of Tom George, who was baptized in the old church building in 1936.