AFM Pursuing Property Purchase Near AU

[Key Guy]

From the Herald-Palladium online news, Southwest Michigan

http://www.heraldpalladium.com/articles/2009/05/17/local_news/504640.txt

Quote:

The Pennellwood Resort on Rangeline Road in Berrien Township could soon get a new lease on life as a training facility for Seventh-day Adventist missionaries.

The Berrien Township Planning Commission on Monday night will take up the request from Adventist Frontier Missions to operate out of the Pennellwood site on Lake Chapin.

Adventist Frontier Missions is asking for a special use permit to be able to construct more buildings, including housing for the missionaries who will live there on a temporary basis. The land is zoned agricultural/residential.

AFM chief financial officer Bruce Wickwire said he doesn't expect any opposition to the proposal from neighbors and other township residents.

"We had an initial hearing on April 26, and no one raised objections," he said. "One member lives next door and appears to be positive about our plans. I've talked to three other neighbors who are positive. I haven't heard anything negative."

He said it's his understanding that if the request is approved by the planning commission, AFM won't need a vote by any other government body.

Wickwire said his organization became interested in the 23-acre Pennellwood site after learning that it was vacant with Edgewater Bank foreclosing on previous owner David Stacey. AFM has been leasing the site since February.

"We had heard that the previous owner had abandoned his project and was in foreclosure ... We've been looking for a couple of years," Wickwire said. "We've been working with the bank. We're leasing it now, and we'll finalize the purchase after we get the permit."

AFM has offices in downtown Berrien Springs on East Ferry Street. Wickwire said those offices will remain there for the time being but could be moved out to the Pennellwood site in the future.

He said before this opportunity came up, his organization used a variety of facilities around the community for its training programs, including renting space from Andrews University, local churches and people with vacant apartments.

"This will be a very useful place for training," he said. "We won't have to be scrounging to find a place to hold training sessions or house people."

The plans for Pennellwood involve using the conference/dining facility building and six-room dormitory already on site as well as building another six-room dormitory and four buildings each with four housing units.

"We usually have four to eight families here during the summer and another four families who come in the early fall," he said. "Eventually we may have people here year-round.

"People come from all over the world. We basically train them in things like church planning, development projects such as water systems and how to improve people's lifestyles."

He said AFM is open to leasing out the main conference/dining facility for meetings, dinners and special events like weddings, as Stacey was doing. "We would like to make it available to the community," he said.

Pennellwood dates back to the late 1800s when owners Edgar and Mary Pennell opened up a resort. The American plan resort offered lodging, meals and activities. Stacey bought the resort in 1999 with the goal of establishing a condominium development. He had torn down the 40 old cabins but had not started on building any new structures at the time of the foreclosure.

On the Net: www.afmonline.org

(photo online)