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3/31/22 Update: Dear UUCFL Member
A Special Meeting of the Congregation is called for Sunday, April 17 (Easter) after services via zoom and in person to discuss how to move forward to acquire a new space. We also hope to see you at the meeting this Sunday, April 3 after services to gain a sense of your desires for our future home.
I am so happy to give you the latest news on the “Big Move” that the congregation voted to make. First I would like to thank our subcommittee of the Board that has been working diligently on the sale of the building and the search for our new home.
To Part 1 - The Selling - Great News all around! You authorized the board to list and to accept an offer at the Special Meeting held Feb. 20. That day we were able to present via Zoom our agent Mervat Abdelnour who had already scouted bids prior to our interview with her and built up a large portfolio of multiple qualified buyers that were all just waiting for the official listing date after our receipt of an appraisal. Within 2 days of listing the property, we accepted the high bidder's offer of $4,000,000 (verified cash) which was over our asking price ($3,900,000)!! The building is now under contract and the tentative closing date is June 16. We are still in the contingency phase of the contract until May 3, but we have other buyers eager to step in if this deal falls through. The buyer intends to keep the building for the use of a church, and all of the current tenants will have an opportunity to renew their leases. I am personally happy to see the place continue serving the community. The Board is currently creating a list of items that are going into storage, being left with the building, being given to our long-term renters, or sold in a May Rummage Sale. We have a long check list of tasks that must be done and need volunteers to make this happen.
Now to Part 2 - The Search - A search committee was formed within the Board. Several pleas were made for other participants but thus far the Board (along with an entourage of spouses and pets) and our agent have been combing through thousands of listings to find a space that suits our needs. The committee has been diligently vetting and visiting properties around Broward looking for our new home. However, a building that fits the needs of our particular congregation is hard to locate, and the real estate industry does not move at "the speed of congregational life." We are very much in need of your participation this weekend to give us direction about what you want and on Sunday, April 17 to give us the authority to work on your behalf to buy or lease our next home. If you cannot make the meeting on April 3, a Board member will be glad to interview you sometime next week if you contact us.
Let’s all stay engaged and move onward together to the exciting future of UUCFL. Thanks so much.
3/14/22 Update:
We are moving…in more ways than one. Following many months of research by our Finance Committee, Town Halls and feedback from the Congregation, we held our meeting for official vote on the 4 Options of the future of UUCFL. With the affirmation our 5th UU Principle of the use of our democratic process, over 85% of members voting to sell the building and find a new home, the Congregation decisively gave us our new direction forward. With that said, we still understand and honor that this is not the way everyone feels. I myself abstained as I wanted to go the way of the congregation’s wishes, and my feelings have been mixed in the process. My children grew up here. I got married in the building, so I have lots of emotional ties to the place, as I know many of us do – even those that voted to move. Rest assured that we will include everyone’s feelings as we go through this process together. It is an exciting time and will also be a time of some anxiety for all of us, but if we all pool our energies together I see great things ahead.
Both the congregation and the Board have been proactive in preparing ourselves for the beginning of the process. After interviewing several candidates for each position, the Board has contracted with an appraiser and a commercial real estate agent. The appraiser’s report has been prepared, and the real estate agent will help us market and sell the current property and also aid us as we search for a new home. In another meeting the Congregation voted to do some necessary repairs and remediation to the building as suggested by the agent both for salability for buyers interested in the building and for the usage of the building by us and our renters until such a time.
In honor of our heritage and vision for the future, we will be looking for some of you to participate in ceremonies and gathering of cherished memories and items to take with us in saying goodbye to our current home and preparing a wonderful welcome to our new home. Please contact me or Rev. Susan if you are interested in either or both of these programs.
As a DJ, I have provided a little motivational music for us below by Curtis Mayfield.
We look so forward to all that is ahead of us. Dream Big UUCFL!!
Gary Ladka - President Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Ft. Lauderdale
Curtis Mayfield - Move On Up! Hush now child And don't you cry Your folks might understand you By and by Just move on up Towards your destination Though you may find, from time to time Complication
Bite your lip And take a trip Though there may be wet road ahead And you cannot slip Just move on up For peace you will find Into the steeple of beautiful people Where there's only one kind
So hush now, child And don't you cry Your folks might understand you By and by Move on up And keep on wishin' Remember your dream is your only scheme So keep on pushin'
Take nothing less
Than the supreme best
Do not obey rumors people say
'Cause you can pass the test
Just move on up
To a greater day
With just a little faith, if you put your mind to it
You can surely do it