ST. JOHNS COUNTY, Fla. — An empty retail district in the middle of World Golf Village is about to get a whole lot busier.
REVERB Church has just bought the largest vacant commercial space in the complex and plans to hold services there starting this winter.
"We always felt World Golf Village is where we needed to be," Pastor Bryan Lamoureux said.
He, his wife Renee, and congregation members of REVERB Church had dreams for this space for years. They thought it would make a great spot for a church.
The building used to be the PGA Pro Stop Shop located in what was the bustling heart of World Golf Village’s business district. The empty store is right across the pond from the World Golf Hall of Fame.
"We came in here and look at it years ago," Renee Lamoureux said.
In the last 20-plus years since the store opened, businesses started to vacate the district and the PGA Pro Stop left too, leaving empty storefronts. However, the Caddy Shack restaurant is still open.
But Reverb church still had a vision.
"We came over and peek in the window and read a little about what it could be and happen here, Mark Atwell with REVERB Church said.
Now it’s happening.
REVERB church has bought the 32,000 square foot space, and it's remodeling it to be a church that can hold almost a thousand people.
"We felt there were only a couple places in World Golf that could actually fit the size of the church we’re hoping to be," Lamoureux said.
For the past ten years, REVERB church has been meeting in a nearby school auditorium. However, with this new spot they'll be able to do ministry "seven days a week."
Some people believe that if the church brings in more foot traffic to the area, the businesses might start moving back in to these empty storefronts.
"As I talked with the owner who sold us this place," Lamoureux said, "I shared with them, this is our desire. We want to see this place filled with life again."
Lamoureux believes moving his church into this empty building is an opportunity to share his Christian walk with many more… and to help boost the livelihoods of the people in the area too.
"So we take old things and we make it new," he said.