Wheaton Park District to pay $1 million for former church property next to Rice Pool

The Wheaton Park District has entered into an agreement to buy a former Methodist church and its 4-acre property for $1.065 million.

Park district commissioners have authorized the purchase of the land and the vacant brick building – the former home of Aldersgate United Methodist Church – along Blanchard Street on the south side of town.

The park district is scheduled to close on the purchase of the property in 60 to 90 days, Executive Director Michael Benard said.

The shuttered church is next to the park district’s Community Center as well as Rice Pool & Waterpark, which is in its 34th year of operation.

“The acquisition of this property will create flexibility for future maintenance and programming for those facilities,” Benard said. “In addition, the preservation of nearly four acres of land in an area that is completely developed is attractive to the park district.”

The park district has no concrete plans for the site. Once the acquisition is finalized, park district staff members will develop short- and long-term recommendations for the future of the property and the cost estimates related to those potential uses, Benard said.

Their recommendations will be reviewed with the board of commissioners, “resulting in a development and use plan that will be folded into the district’s planning and budgeting process,” Benard said.

The park district will buy the property with existing reserves that are targeted for capital expenses.

Aldersgate and Gary United Methodist Church in downtown Wheaton voted to merge earlier this year to form one congregation. Church leaders agreed to retain the Gary UMC name post-merger and base the newly combined congregation at Gary’s church on North Main Street. Aldersgate offered its property for sale to the park district for the price of $1.065 million.

Next door, the park district is replacing the parking lot asphalt, sidewalks and curbs around the Community Center’s main and northwest entrances. The project also is designed to improve pedestrian safety and traffic flow.

The 122,000-square-foot building houses the district’s Parks Plus Fitness Center, child care programs, meeting rooms and an indoor track.

The fitness center also is undergoing renovations. The Zone, Graf and Lincoln Marsh rooms inside the Community Center will be temporarily used as fitness space during construction.

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