GCFA buys new office building in Nashville

A UMNS photo by Ronny Perry GCFA will move its headquarters to this property on Nashville�s Music Row.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) — The United Methodist Church’s finance and administration agency has closed on the $2.8 million purchase of a building previously occupied by RCA.

The General Council on Finance and Administration will have its new, consolidated headquarters at 1 Music Circle North. The offices are 27,000 square feet on two floors—about the same amount of space now occupied by GCFA in its Evanston, Ill., headquarters and Nashville branch.

The building’s previous owner, Jim Ayers, chairman of First Bank in Lexington, Tenn., had marketed the Music Row property for more than three years.

The space is close to several other church agencies, as well as the Scarritt-Bennett Conference Center and the Tennessee Annual (regional) Conference office.

Built in 1990, the building will be renovated before current Nashville staff move into it this summer. There are 11 employees in Nashville and about 40 in Evanston. The number of staff relocating from Evanston and the timeline for their move will be determined in the spring.

"The council researched and deliberated this consolidation for over two years," said Ray Moseley, a member of the Baltimore-Washington Conference and chairperson of the task force researching the move. "By having all our staff in a single location, GCFA will be able to provide more efficient and effective services to the church at a substantially reduced cost."

"GCFA’s existing, inefficient buildings are both over 40 years old," said Sandra K. Lackore, top executive with GCFA. "We project that the savings from the sale of those buildings plus the savings accruing from having all staff under one roof for the first time will pay for the consolidation within five years. From that point forward, the consolidation will produce significant ongoing savings, which the church can use to fulfill its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ."

Steve Zekoff, assistant general secretary of communications at the General Council on Finance and Administration, provided information for this report.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.

Suggested Articles Methodists buy Music Row site GCFA plans Nashville move, launches insurance company United Methodists set four-year budget Delegates urged to consider future, not past, as they develop budget Church finance agency seeks new level of efficiency

Resource General Council on Finance and Administration