Bethlehem Baptist Church building for charter school

Bethlehem Baptist Church building for charter school

Faced with growing space needs, Bethlehem Baptist Church in Sarasota is looking to relocate its pre-school, but its ultimate development plans will also affect more school age kids.

The church has proposed a site plan to develop a 7,000-square-foot pre-school building for the Horizons Unlimited Christian Academy on property it owns on 17th Street near Orange Avenue.

“We are busting at the seams,” says Mark Jackson, the church treasurer and chairman for Horizon's Unlimited Christian Academy. “When the preschool first opened in 2003 there was a grand total of 10 children. Now there's over 38 students in the program.”

The church is in the early planning stages to build a new education building for a charter school on Lemon Avenue near Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Way and Central Avenue. The church is currently discussing creating a facility to house about 300 elementary school students.

According to Jackson, the goal of the new school is to offer children in the area of the Rosemary District, who tend to be from lower to middle income families, the chance to attend a better school than many of their existing public school options.

The church is working with development consultant Joel Freedman of the Freedman Consulting Group and Larry Weber of Weber Engineering & Surveying Inc. for the site engineering.

In addition, the church is also considering a free-standing office building fronting on Orange Avenue and a possible senior-housing project.