A quick history

HCC has existed for 24 years now as a community of faith where our motto “No Church Experience Required” is still true. Our weekend services have been located in public spaces, including various school buildings in the Peninsula School District and the Gig Harbor Boys and Girls Club. Since we lease weekend meeting space, some people are unaware that HCC has been a property owner for almost 20 years as well. Here’s how that unfolded:

In 1999, a family in our church who had just recently been baptized called my office and said that they had a piece of property they wanted to donate to HCC. At this time we were meeting at Goodman Middle school.  We had been renting at that location since we started the church in 1995.

We gladly accepted this donation of 6-acres, which at that time was valued at $700,000.  The property was located on Skansie Avenue, right next to Hemley’s near the Purdy Women’s Correctional Center. A few years later, we purchased the adjoining 6-acres for $800,000.  We were able to pay cash for that additional parcel.  

Several years later, a Building Task Force was formed and began studying the possibility of building a performing arts center on those two parcels.  Over time, it was prayerfully decided that the property would not be feasible for a 1200 seat auditorium. The committee decided to sell the property and pursue a 6-acre parcel at Gig Harbor North across from the YMCA.

The property on Skansie sold for $2.4 million in ten days.  In 2006, we took the proceeds of the sale, added $200,000 and paid cash for the 6.2-acre parcel at Gig Harbor North. The new property is zoned to accommodate a church or performing art center and has continued to increase in value as the development progressed at Gig Harbor North.

This past year our HCC Council has been prayerfully discerning what our next step should be regarding future facilities for HCC. This discernment process has been precipitated by the Boys and Girls Club’s decision to sell the Hope Center that we are presently leasing for our Sunday services.

The future owners of the Hope Center will determine whether or not the facility will be available on weekends for HCC to meet. The Pierce County Boys and Girls Club has offered to sell the building to HCC at an excellent price. Our Council is now praying about this and other options that we need to consider for the future.

With that in mind, we have created this blog to keep you up to date so that you an can also pray with us.  Our leadership team is called to discern what next step allows for the best expression of HCC’s mission in our community. We will post updates here as they become available. You can also subscribe to this blog and you will automatically receive the updates. Feel free to leave a question in the comment box below and we’ll gladly answer those in future posts.

As always I am available for coffee to answer questions or discuss potential possibilities with you. Here is a link to my coffee schedule: CLICK HERE.

Gino Grunberg
Lead Pastor