Grace Evangelical to buy parcel, expand

BANGOR – Grace Evangelical College and Seminary is moving up and out of the basement space it has called home for the past seven years.

The seminary has a purchase and sale agreement for a 1.8-acre property at 502 Odlin Road, south of Outer Hammond Street, the Rev. W. Lyman “Terry” Phillips, president of Grace Evangelical, announced Thursday at graduation.

Edward Parker Real Estate, which sells manufactured homes, owns the property.

Phillips declined to reveal the purchase price but said the school expects to close on the property by the end of June. Fall classes will be held at the new location, he said.

The seminary’s new home will increase its space from 815 square feet to 4,500 square feet, Phillips said Friday. That will allow Grace Evangelical to offer more classes at the same time, to increase space available to staff and students, and to create a chapel of its own.

The Odlin Road location also will increase the seminary’s visibility and be more convenient for students to get to because of its proximity to Interstate 95, the president said.

The seminary has been looking for a property for several years, he said, but had not found anything suitable. The school also was mindful of the fact that as a tax-exempt entity, any property it bought would be taken out of the city’s tax base.

“This is not a million-dollar property,” he said. “There’s not much to be taken out of the tax base. That’s one of the things we’re conscious of.”

Phillips said that since offering its first class to a handful of students in 2001, Grace Evangelical has grown slowly but steadily. It had 30 students enrolled this spring.

The school began as a ministry of Bangor Baptist Church and other evangelical congregations that wanted to create an undergraduate college and seminary that would offer a conservative theological education.

Many evangelical Christians in northern and Down East Maine wanted to study the Bible and the history of the church in an academic setting but felt strongly about being at an evangelical institution rather than a mainline Christian one, Phillips said when the school opened its doors.

“The school is really good about making you part of a family that supports each other,” said William Charles Simpson Sr., 57, of Troy. “It’s not that the work isn’t hard because it is, but learning there is not just about books, it goes beyond that.”

jharrison@bangordailynews.net

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