Fast-growing Flatirons mega-church to take over Lafayette Marketplace

Lafayette's Flatirons Community Church is once again poised to make the move across South Boulder Road.

The mega-church, which has building-hopped around Lafayette for years, is expanding again - this time taking over half of the Lafayette Marketplace shopping center directly across South Boulder Road with plans to use the space for church offices.

Lead Pastor Jim Burgen explained the rationale behind the move during services Saturday night.

"In November, we averaged just under 20,000 people here every weekend, which is 4,700 more than last year in November," he said. "Which is awesome, but we're feeling the squeeze."

The church is under contract to acquire the marketplace portion of the retail center from Jax Mercantile owner Jim Quinlan, who bought the 93,000-square-foot plaza in 2012 for $2.8 million. Quinlan said his Jax Ranch & Home store on the west end of the complex is not part of the transaction.

Lafayette Marketplace, formerly Plaza Lafayette, at 400 E. South Boulder Road, is home to seven restaurants and bars, and nine retailers. The church is going to buy all of them, except for marijuana dispensary Herbal Wellness. Burgen said Flatirons will also work to staff with restaurants with unemployed and underemployed community members.

"We figure we'll be a part of the community, not just drive-in and drive-out. We want to be a part of this community," he said. "That's really, really important to us. So the idea is we'll have some great places for you to park for church services, and all through the week you can meet up with friends to get some good food over there, grab some coffee or whatever you want to grab over there all through the week.

"We'll also use those businesses to train some really good people who actually want and need jobs."

The first domino in this development fell Tuesday ,when Quinlan announced that his Gourmet Cheese Pantry Shoppe, Cottage Home, and Hearth & Design Gallery stores in the marketplace will close at the end of January. On Wednesday, Quinlan informed his marketplace tenants that the building was under contract to be sold.

Quinlan said the transaction has "been in the works for a while now," and that while a contract has been drawn up, "it's subject to some things falling into place."

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Fast-growing Flatirons mega-church to take over Lafayette Marketplace