MIAMI – Local 10 News has learned new details about a Liberty City church’s financial dealings with developers as it now stands on the brink of foreclosure, with congregants asking: “Where is the money going?”
As Local 10 News reported on Wednesday, the New Providence Missionary Baptist Church, located at 760 NW 53rd St., has until June 2 to come up with the money, come up with the financing, pay off the mortgage, or lose the church in foreclosure.
“Devastated is the word,” Vince Cason, a former associate minister at the church, said over the phone Thursday, regarding the news that the 60-year-old church may soon be sold ― and, beyond that, that Pastor Steven Caldwell sold off five properties it owned in the neighborhood.
Cason said, “One of the reasons why the properties were purchased was to help members have a place to stay. They did not want (any) of that stuff to be sold off just because there’s a new developer in town.”
Records show Caldwell led the sell-off to developers, all but one to a realtor who registered a separate development corporation using the church’s name to be a part of that.
From the pastor’s appearance in a promotional video, Local 10 News learned the two are part of a plan to amass properties and redevelop the church’s neighborhood.
“Did the members know about it?” Shawn, a Liberty City resident, asked.
No, they did not, until the church’s public foreclosure raised questions about where the money went.
Local 10 News learned from some residents that agents had knocked on doors to ask who might sell and showed renderings of their vision.
“They’re developing all these new places and people can’t afford to live there,” Shawn said.
Local 10 News found no outright opposition to development in the neighborhood. But there are well-founded concerns that some may be forced out.
“We want better for where we (are) at,” resident Fatt Eans said. “But trying to change it and turn to something else that we ain’t used to? No.”
Miami City Commission Chair Christine King lives and works in the area. Local 10 News tried paying her a visit Thursday to find out what she knew about the development plans.
As of Thursday evening, we had yet to hear back.
