wfn.org | UMNS# 05027-GCFA buys new office building in Nashville

["NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

GCFA buys new office building in Nashville

Jan. 12, 2005	 News media contact:   Kathy  Gilbert * (615) 7425470*
Nashville {05027}

NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Church's finance and
administration agency has closed on the $2.8 million purchase of a
building previously occupied by RCA.

The General Council on Finance and Administration will have its new,
consolidated headquarters at 1 Music Circle North. The offices are
27,000 square feet on two floors-about the same amount of space now
occupied by GCFA in its Evanston, Ill., headquarters and Nashville
branch.

The building's previous owner, Jim Ayers, chairman of First Bank in
Lexington, Tenn., had marketed the Music Row property for more than
three years.

The space is close to several other church agencies, as well as the
Scarritt-Bennett Conference Center and the Tennessee Annual (regional)
Conference office.

Built in 1990, the building will be renovated before current Nashville
staff move into it this summer. There are 11 employees in Nashville and
about 40 in Evanston. The number of staff relocating from Evanston and
the timeline for their move will be determined in the spring.

"The council researched and deliberated this consolidation for over two
years," said Ray Moseley, a member of the Baltimore-Washington
Conference and chairperson of the task force researching the move. "By
having all our staff in a single location, GCFA will be able to provide
more efficient and effective services to the church at a substantially
reduced cost."

"GCFA's existing, inefficient buildings are both over 40 years old,"
said Sandra K. Lackore, top executive with GCFA. "We project that the
savings from the sale of those buildings plus the savings accruing from
having all staff under one roof for the first time will pay for the
consolidation within five years. From that point forward, the
consolidation will produce significant ongoing savings, which the church
can use to fulfill its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ."

# # #

Steve Zekoff, assistant general secretary of communications at the
General Council on Finance and Administration, provided information for
this report.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470
or newsdesk@umcom.org.

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United Methodist News Service