LAS VEGAS, Nev. (FOX5) – A historic valley church is saying goodbye to its home off Interstate 15 after they say a state construction project changed the area for the worse.
Portraits hanging along the walls of Grace Presbyterian Church capture pieces of 70 years of history in the Las Vegas Valley.
FOX5’S Molly McBride: “What does this building mean to you?”
Pastor Craig Sanders: “Well, it’s home.”
Home to roughly 500 members, Pastor Craig Sanders says the building has been through its ups and downs.
“People have celebrated a lot of different life, you know, funerals, weddings, special events,” Sanders says.
This most recent challenge, though, has proved itself to be too big to overcome.
A Nevada Department of Transportation Spokesperson tells FOX5 that “Project Neon” was completed in 2019 to enhance safety, mobility, and traffic flow along nearly four miles of I-15.
Sanders says that their church did the opposite.
“Just getting to the property and off the property, it’s taken a lot of our space,” Sanders says.
What used to be the main entryway to the church, now opens up directly to Martin Luther King Blvd.
Sanders says it’s also drawn the homeless population onto their property, opening them up to break-ins and other violence.
“I’d say easily once a week, we have the alarms go off and have to come down and send the police and all of that kind of stuff,” Sanders says. “You can be accosted down here pretty easily.”
Sanders says he was even once assaulted himself.
“One of the guys pulled out a weapon on me and tried to hit me over the head and knocked me down,” he says.
An NDOT Spokesperson says they now own the property after a settlement agreement involving Project Neon. Sanders says they got $18 million from the settlement.
NDOT then leased the property back to the church, who decided to end that lease early.
The church is now constructing a new building in the Southwest Valley on the corner of Oquendo and Durango.
Sanders says their last service in their current building will be held May 4. They hope to open their new church in November.
Read NDOT’s full statement regarding Grace Presbyterian Church below:
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