Missouri church buys facility in Lakewood

LAKEWOOD RANCH — A mega-church based in Branson, Mo., has purchased an 82,010-square-foot manufacturing building in the Lakewood Ranch Corporate Park.

Faith Life Church Inc., alternatively known as Faith Life Church of Sarasota, officially closed on the property at 6980 Professional Parkway East on Sept. 29, purchasing the site from the property’s original operator Teleflex Marine for $4 million.

Faith Life Church (Principals Keith and Phyllis Moore of Branson) mortgaged the building to First America Bank for $2 million, records show. The property includes 22,435 square feet of office space with a two-story reception office, a conference room and an employee cafeteria.

Michael Reid, the Atlanta-based Realtor with Binswager who handled the transaction, said he cannot discuss details of the sale per terms of the deal.

“We have been given strict instructions by the purchaser of the facility to not discuss anything about the transaction, and we are gong to honor that,” Reid said. “That was part of the terms of the transaction.”

Officials from Faith Life Church did not return multiple requests for interviews by The East County Observer.
A search of Sarasota County records show there are no active rezone petitions or permit applications for the site.

The website for Faith Life Church, as well as subsequent Internet searches, reveal little about the church’s operations in Branson. The church’s website, shared with the website for Moore Life Ministries, a non-profit founded by the church’s pastor Keith Moore and his wife, Phyllis, offers information about the Branson area, upcoming conferences, broadcasts of services and a way to donate to the ministry online.

The website states the Moores moved to Branson from Broken Arrow, Okla. to start the church and began remodeling the Yellow Ribbon Theater without yet having a congregation less than a decade ago. Faith Life Church held its first evening service March 29, 2002, and hundreds of people attended the Sunday service just a week later.

By October 2004, Faith Life had begun broadcasting Friday and Sunday services online and the expansion continued, first airing on local television networks in 2005 and later across the country and world. Faith Life continued to grow and its congregation moved into the former Remington Theater in September 2007.

Contact Pam Eubanks at peubanks@yourobserver.com.

Purchase leaves Winslow LifeRaft searching for property
Faith Life Church’s purchase of the Lakewood Ranch facility caught Sarasota County officials, in particular, by surprise. The Sarasota County Economic Development Corp. had been negotiating with Winslow LifeRaft Co., a Lake Suzy-based manufacturer of marine and aviation life rafts, since last summer when discussions became public in July.

Winslow was planning to lease the property, utilizing $650,000 in incentives offered by Sarasota County for bringing at least 60 jobs to the area, and was close to signing a contract when it got the news.

Ron Maloney, executive vice president of the Sarasota EDC said the organization was working hard to find another location for Winslow to lease, although Winslow is revisiting other potential relocation sites, including some in Manatee, Charlotte and DeSoto counties as well as in Dallas and Albuquerque, N.M.

“(We and) all our partners in the county are working to help find Winslow a home here in the county,” Maloney said.