The church at 1500 S. Dayton St. in Aurora will continue to serve the community despite being sold.
Colorado UpLift, which serves 4,000 children each school year, providing them with in-school and extracurricular programming, purchased the 70,000-square-foot church on 6.5 acres earlier this month for $6 million.
The nonprofit expects to spend another $6 million over the next couple years constructing its new campus. It’ll have a full gym, basketball court and space that complementary nonprofits can use for free.
Joe Sanders and Brian Stamer, UpLift’s CEO and COO, respectively, said it will be a welcome change from its previous location — 17,000 square feet in an office building at 400 W. 48th Ave. near the interchange of Interstates 70 and 25 in Denver.
“Recognizing that our families need better health and wellness, that’s what this is going to facilitate,” Stamer said. “We had none of that at the old office. We have tried to do that some in the communities. We go to the park, … which is great. Now, we have control over programming here.”
To date, much of UpLift’s impact has come in the classroom. It has accredited teachers who educate students on character qualities, leadership and life skills in Denver, Westminster and Aurora public schools. Those same faculty provide after-school programming as well as trips around the state, from snowboarding to white-water rafting.
UpLift provides college and career help for its graduates as well. The nonprofit says over 100,000 people have participated in its programming since UpLift’s founding in 1982. It has grown to almost $6 million a year in contributions, according to its 2024 tax filing. The board of directors includes names like Walt Rakowich, former CEO of Prologis, the world’s largest industrial property investment company, and Clifford Hickey, managing director of Anschutz Investment Co.
“This [purchase] provides some substantiation to our organization,” Stamer said. “From a finance perspective, we put a major asset on our balance sheet that is worth a lot more than what we paid for it, per the appraisal. And it just provides credibility as we go across organizations and donors.”
The Bank of Colorado provided a three-year loan of $3 million to finance the deal, public records show.
The seller in the deal, Rising Star Missionary Baptist Church, erected the first buildings on campus in 1977 and constructed additions 20 years later. It agreed to cut its sales price in half in exchange for being allowed to lease back space on the property at an affordable rate, according to UpLift’s broker, Anthony Albanese of CBRE.
Finding a property that worked for UpLift was like “searching for a needle in a haystack,” according to Albanese, who worked with colleague Nicolina Athanas on the deal.
“We looked at converting existing, vacated office buildings into our need and deleting floors to create auditoriums and gyms trying to make them work,” Albanese said. “I’ve been blessed to work with some of the best companies in this country. And I’d say this: I’ve done over 1,000 transactions, and this one really sticks out to me as working with Colorado’s top nonprofit organization.”
The nonprofit moved its first staff members over last week, and is working to build out the remaining office space for its 43 full-time employees. It hopes to have the bulk of construction wrapped up by the end of the summer. Afterward, it will break ground on its leadership center – an auditorium with space for workshops, conferences and speeches to help mold the next generation.
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