In the years between 1974 and 1978 the church carried on an intense search for new facilities.  The Jackman Road location was too confining for any substantial future growth, and any expansion there would mean buying more houses at a premium just to tear them down for parking.  Instead, a new site where land would be available for growth was the only feasible answer.  The pastors and deacon board toured building after building: factories, supermarkets, furniture warehouses, and church buildings to find a suitable place.  All the possibilities of each existing structure were discussed, but each time the realization grew stronger that the real answer was to build a new facility.

     As soon as acreage became the object of our search, the church leaders fanned out over the city to locate a good site.  North, east, south and west areas were all considered, but since the city seemed to be moving west in building trends, our eyes turned in that direction.  A beautiful piece of property was located on Sylvania Avenue, about three and one-half miles west of the Jackman Road location.  It was about seven acres, and had frontage on both Sylvania Avenue, and I-475.  Our offer of $113,00, however, was turned down and we countered with an offer of $160,000.  Before we could negotiate on this offer, we discovered that God had something else in the works.

    One day a member of the deacon board called the church and asked if we had seen the ad in the paper about some land one and one-half miles farther west on Sylvania Avenue.  It was held in trust by Toledo Trust Bank, and a developer had taken out an option on it to build apartments or condominiums.   He discovered the zoning laws were too restrictive so he simply wanted to sell the land.  The land was exactly what we wanted and needed.  It was twenty-five acres with a half-mile frontage on both Sylvania Avenue and I-475 plus frontage on the four-lane Holland-Sylvania Road.  The price was $150,000, less than one-third the price (per acre) than we were prepared to give for the land down the street!

     When we discovered that the bank, not the developer, owned the land, we talked to them.  They advised us to wait until the option expired and then make an offer ourselves directly to them.  At the time of expiration, they informed us that their selling price would be $125,000.  We were even more excited!  Our attorney, Steve Mack, however, wanted to do even better.

     "The bank has been sitting on this property for a long time", he advised us.  "They probably are in the mood to sell.  The zoning laws are so strict that the market potential is limited.   Why don't you offer them half of what they want."

     "You mean offer them $75,000 for this beautiful piece of property?  They'll laugh us out of the office!"  we said.  "Besides, that's only $3,000 an acre."

     "What have you got to lose", he said.   "Try it."

     We did and to our amazement our offer of $75,000 was accepted almost immediately!  We have thanked the Lord many times for this property.

     We closed the sale on the property in February of 1978 and began plans immediately for a new building.  We conferred with Paul Pillau of Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, for some preliminary drawings.  Later, we turned to a local architectural firm, Seyfang and Blanchard, along with Dave Crane, our construction manager from Milan, Michigan to complete the plans.  In the meantime, we toured more churches to gather ideas for our construction.  We realized after two building programs that the most important phase of a construction project is the planning, yet this is usually the phase that gets the least amount of attention.

     In the summer of 1979, the men of the church built a 40' x 50' maintenance building.  This, along with clearing out much of the undergrowth, was the beginning of the development.

    It was during this time that the economy went into a decline, later called the recession of 1978-79.  Interest rates started to climb, and each month the cost of borrowing money began to rise, sometimes by a full percentage point.  Consequently, our building began to shrink.  Finally, in early 1980, we regretfully decided that if we were going to build at all, we would have to cut our proposed plan in half.  The sanctuary would have to wait.  Only the educational building which included Sunday School and Academy classrooms, restrooms, nursery, offices and fellowship hall could be built.

    In April of 1980, the very day we broke ground for the new building, the interest rates made history, peaking out at 21 1/2%!  We went ahead with the building, even though we had many men laid off from their jobs.  It turned out to be a blessing in disguise, because many men were then able to volunteer their services for several months and still collect unemployment pay!

    The construction of the first phase of the building on Sylvania Avenue was completed in May of 1981, one year and two weeks from the start of the program.   On the eighteenth day of the month, we held our dedication service.  Bro. Harry Scism, Director of Foreign Missions was the speaker.  Even though we still did not have our sanctuary, we worshipped in the fellowship hall, and the congregation was very happy and excited about the future!