Rising from The Embers: Work continues on old restaurant as Grace Church prepares move in
Grace Church is turning the loaves of bread and ample fish of The Embers Restaurant into a new home for their faith.
In June 2009, Grace Church purchased the building that formerly housed The Embers Restaurant, 1217 S. Mission St. Since then construction has been ongoing to transform the building from a restaurant to a house of worship.
“We have over 120 volunteers who have been working on the building with us since we started,” said Dan Koefoed, a performance hall manager for the school of music and volunteer for the project. “Almost all of the work has been done by the volunteers with the exception of a few specialty contractors that we had to hire,”
Last year, the volunteers worked to get the building to usable shape so they could hold their first service, their annual New Year’s Eve service.
“We expect to be working on the building for years to come, but we hope to be able to officially open up for service this fall, in the next three weeks if we can manage,” said Jason Tubbs, the project coordinator and Grace Church staff member.
With the purchase of The Embers, Grace Church has stopped leasing a number of properties scattered across downtown that it used for children’s ministries. The former Embers building has ample room for multiple ministries for children of various ages as well as room for a stage, lobby and different halls, Koefoed said.
There is even a space reserved for a coffee and latte bar, where students will be able to make a wide sampling of international beverages.
Jeff Tuma, former owner of The Embers and a member of Grace Church, has kept tabs on the project but remained at arm’s length.
“Jeff has been very supportive of the project, but the building was like his baby,” said Barry Flanders, Pastor of Grace Church. “It’s hard on him to see us tearing out the walls to open up the space and all of the other construction we are doing.”
While they are planning to switch primary service from the Ward Theatre, 218 S. Main St., to The Embers building there are no plans to sell the Ward Theatre, Flanders said. Grace Church will keep the theater because it is a better location for music, a critical part of their ministry.
“We have had offers from interested parties for the Ward, but for now we plan to keep it although in the future we may sell it for an amount that we think it is worth,” Koefoed said.
So far, work on the building has gone smoothly, Tubbs said. The only serious setback the group encountered was when the basement flooded and they had to focus on tearing up the carpet and fixing the water damage.
The crew does not view that as a setback but as a blessing.
“It was God’s way of telling us that that is the part of the building that we should be focusing on,” Koefoed said, “so we shifted gears and put our focus there.”
