DETROIT (WXYZ) — Tonight, we wanted to get the latest on the controversy surrounding a new mega-church that's been in the making for nearly 20 years.
We covered the announcement of Pastor Marvin Winans' dream to build the new church. Now a lawsuit by the city and a countersuit by the church are leading to a showdown in court.
You've likely seen the new Perfecting Church at Woodward and 7 Mile, located in the premiere Palmer Woods neighborhood.
It's massive, 35,000 square feet, and sits on 16 acres of land. What may surprise you is the inside. Winans granted us an exclusive tour. His two lead architects and contractor joined us as we walked around.
“I grew up down the street, 7 Mile, and so to have this opportunity is a great, great reward for us to leave the city better than we found it,” Winans says.
The renderings of this 4,200-seat sanctuary are spectacular. A gorgeous winding staircase, a colorful nursery, a chapel for weddings, and a 1,000-seat banquet space.
“It's divisible into three sections so that we can have smaller groups or larger groups, all kinds of events,” he says.
We're told the core is complete electrical, heating, underground plumbing, gas lines for the kitchen, and the ceiling fully coated with flame retardants.
“It is solid. There’s no rain. It is a sound structure.”
A parking structure needs to be erected. The price tag so far? 20 million dollars all paid in full by the church.
“All of the underground work for this facility is done so as we pitch it to the finance this is more of a build-out, it's an interior build-out.”
But it's been two decades and, according to the city, no building permits have been pulled since 2018. Attorney David Jones is the lead counsel for Perfecting Church and Winans.
“Initially, there was some financing that was lined up, local banks Comerica Bank, to name a few. They had signed up and they pulled out,” Jones says.
Now the city is suing. Lead Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallett says Detroit requested a building status report from a certified structural engineer stating the building is in fact in good shape. There was no answer by the February deadline.
“I just became Corporation Counsel and blight is something that has plagued the city of Detroit for decades,” Mallett says.
Counsel for Perfecting Church argues there is no blight - no broken windows, no graffiti, and 24-hour round-the-clock security.
“Well it's unprecedented, in our opinion, they're asking to come in appoint a receiver and cease the property. That's a taking and there's absolutely no justification,” Jones says.
Mallet claims the city does not want the property.
“It is a nuisance, in every stretch of the word, and while we don't want the property, we're not interested in taking anything away from Perfecting Church or from Winans. What we want is a responsible plan,” Mallett says.
Mallet says he's hoping the judge will appoint a receiver and if Perfecting cannot finish the church in a reasonable time period, it should be sold with the proceeds going back to Perfecting.
Counsel for Perfecting says they are close to getting the financial backing.
Meantime the Church has filed a countersuit against the city.
“We're going to ask the judge to very quickly assess the property, perhaps even take a tour like you're doing today, and determine so she can see for herself this is not a public nuisance,” Jones says.
Mallet says the city wants to see signed contracts with the architects and contractors and their certifications.
“These are basic requests and we at the city of Detroit have the right to that information and we've asked for it politely and we've asked for it more than once,” Mallett says.
Perfecting Church and Winans calls this selective prosecution.
“We didn't look for the fight but we're not running from it either. The city has no right to do what they're attempting to do and we're hopeful a judge is going to determine real quickly that Perfecting is allowed to complete the project.”
