wfn.org | Presbyterian Foundation Considering Move to Louisville

[PCUSA NEWS <pcusa.news@ecunet.org>]

19-February-2000 
00083 
 
    Presbyterian Foundation Considering Move to Louisville 
 
    Investment and loan program reports improved financial health 
 
    by Evan Silverstein 
 
LOUISVILLE, Ky. - The Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) Foundation is studying 
the possibility of moving its southern Indiana financial-service operation 
across the Ohio River to Louisville, Ky. 
 
    The move would locate the office more conveniently on the same side of 
the Ohio as the parent denomination, and add more space for the 
foundation's growing staff. 
 
    The move, which is still in the discussion stages, would put the 
Foundation and the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.) in the same city for the 
first time since the denomination moved its national offices to Louisville 
in 1988. Plans for relocating from Jeffersonville, Ind., possibly near the 
Presbyterian Center in downtown Louisville, were discussed in the 
Foundation's Feb. 18 report to the General Assembly Council (GAC). 
 
    "It would put staff in a single place, and we are hoping that over the 
long term ... we'll be in partnership with the General Assembly Council," 
said the Rev. Phil Young, a recently-retired executive for the Synod of the 
Pacific and the Foundation's trustee liaison to GAC. "The Foundation staff 
and council staff will have immediate access to each other." 
 
    A change in Kentucky legislation that required church-related 
philanthropies such as the Foundation to pay taxes on assets was a factor 
in the decision to consider moving. 
 
    "The major fiscal corporation liabilities have disappeared," Young told 
the Presbyterian News Service. "We went across the river (in 1988) because 
that was the safe place to be. Now we could be moving to Kentucky." 
 
    Young said the Foundation is not looking at the Presbyterian Center, at 
100 Witherspoon Street, as a possible location of its headquarters. 
 
    "There have been conversations about other properties, adjacent (to the 
Presbyterian Center) or in the immediate area, that might be available to 
us," Young said. "However, there is no definite information at the present 
about what might be possible." 
 
    He said recent conversations about "options and possibilities" the 
Foundation may consider  have involved church officials, Foundation 
trustees and staff, including Robert E. Leech, who last month assumed the 
post of Foundation president and chief executive officer. 
 
    "We have a committee of our board ... studying that now," Leech said of 
a possible move to Louisville. "I think the church would like us to be in 
closer proximity, and there are some good things about the ability to share 
a conference room ... But it really is a decision that the board just 
started to study, and there has been no determination at this point." 
 
    The Foundation's more than 140 employees have outgrown its main 
Jeffersonville, Ind., offices, prompting the independently incorporated 
church entity to move development employees and other services into a 
second nearby building in Indiana. 
 
    "It is no longer adequate for us," Young said of the original 
Foundation offices, constructed in the late 1980s. "It was a building that 
was built in 90 days, and served us very, very well, but may not be the 
most appropriate place for us to continue." 
 
    Young said the Foundation may wish to maintain offices at the second 
Indiana site. 
 
    Meanwhile, another church-related enterprise -  the Presbyterian 
Investment and Loan Program (PILP) - gave the GAC a promising report on its 
financial health just before the council concurred in the election of four 
new PILP board members and renewed the terms of three others as officers. 
 
    The Rev. Ben F. McAnally, chair of PILP's board of directors, said in a 
brief report to the council: "We are happy with where we are." 
 
    PILP is beginning its fourth year of offering Presbyterians investment 
notes that pay rates comparable to those earned on CDs. The invested funds 
are used to provide loans to congregations for new-church development, 
renovations of church buildings and construction of new buildings. 
 
    Without mentioning specifics, McAnally, a retired pastor from Tyler, 
Texas, told the GAC members that PILP  "continues toward maturity as a new 
enterprise for the Presbyterian Church - (it) is well on the way. As we say 
in East Texas, `We ain't well, but we're a whole lot better.'" 
 
    PILP will "end the year with less deficits than were originally 
anticipated," McAnally said, "We are making loans (and) receiving 
investments." 
 
    During 1999, PILP's loan portfolio increased by 147 percent. 
 
    "When fully disbursed with commitments and loan participations sold to 
partners, the loan portfolio is $32 million," said the Rev. Ken Grant, 
PILP's president and CEO. 
 
    Rebates to borrowing congregations increased by 353 percent over 1998, 
and the largest rebate check for a congregation was $8,364, Grant said. 
Rebates are created by investors supporting churches with mortgages. 
 
    That represents quite a lot of progress since last winter's GAC 
meeting, when PILP sought and received a $1 million capital contribution to 
enable it to expand services to congregations. 
 
    The PILP board's recommendations now go to the 212th General Assembly 
in Long Beach, Calif., for confirmation. GA approval of PILP officers is 
not required. The board nominees are: Mary C. (Molly) Baskin, Wilmette, 
Ill.; Duane Black, Yucaipa, Calif.; Richard B. Lohrer, Palos Verdes, 
Calif.; and B. Cary Tolley III, Norwalk, Conn. 
 
    Officers elected to new terms, all from Louisville:  Joey B. Bailey, 
treasurer, Martha E. Clark, secretary, and James G. Rissler, vice 
president.   

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