Cascade Hills Church is opening a satellite campus in Columbus. Here’s where and why
One of the largest churches in the Chattahoochee Valley plans to expand its ministry by opening a satellite campus in downtown Columbus.
Cascade Hills Church, which has increased its presence overlooking J.R. Allen Parkway in north Columbus by growing its facilities and programs on 54th Street, now intends to boost its impact to another level.
Although the church didn’t disclose the location in its news release, Cascade Hills outreach coordinator Victoria Hall told the Ledger-Enquirer the satellite campus will be in the former Rialto Theater, 1235 Broadway.
“As far as an opening date, this campus is a part of our Debt Free Whatever it Takes project, meaning that as the funds are available, work will be completed,” she said in an email.
The estimated cost of the project wasn’t disclosed.
The satellite campus will “serve as a community center during the week where individuals can join hands and take part in various opportunities to help those in need,” the news release says. It also will be a site to view services streamed from the main campus.
Cascade Hills completes more than 80 local projects for schools and organizations in need and raises an average of $1.5 million to $2 million for missions per year, according to the the news release.
The satellite campus will be called Cascade Hills Uptown. The vision is for it to “become a place where all can come together as a community to make a difference, not only locally but globally as well,” the news release says.
“What I am most excited about,” Brent Purvis, lead pastor at Cascade Hills, said in the news release, “is all the opportunities this new facility will bring for us to show the love of God through acts of service to the people of Uptown — specifically those who don’t go to church.”
Among the ways the new facility could help the community, Cascade Hills mentions in the news release feeding the homeless, making toiletry bags for victims of domestic violence and facilitating school supply drives for underprivileged students.
Cascade Hills, which markets itself as the “Church for the Unchurched,” emphasized in the news release, “There are many great churches in the Uptown area, and Cascade Hills’ purpose is not to draw church members to their new location but instead to draw the unchurched and those who have never been to church before. The mission of Cascade Hills is to make fully devoted followers of Jesus Christ out of irreligious people.”
The Rialto, according to cinematreasures.org, dates back to 1919. Carmike Cinemas closed the theater in 1972 after buying the property from Martin Theatres.
As of this spring, when the L-E last reported about the Rialto, it was owned by developer Jason Gamache, owner of automobile accessory and repair business PTAP. Gamache obtained the Rialto from the W.C. Bradley Company in a real estate swap for the former downtown YMCA building at 118 11th St.
W.C. Bradley renovated the 119-year-old historic structure into offices for rent. The first two tenants are the Greater Columbus Chamber of Commerce and VisitColumbusGa.
It’s unclear whether Cascade Hills’ plan to open a satellite campus in the Rialto involves buying or renting the property from Gamache. Hall didn’t answer that question before publication, and the L-E didn’t reach Gamache for comment.
