The Georgia Baptist Mission Board announced Friday (Dec. 2) it is moving out of its five-story executive office building into a smaller and more efficient space.
GBMB has secured a letter of intent from a corporation that wants to lease the building at 6405 Sugarloaf Parkway beginning in the next two months.
“The plan is to move the accounting and human resources staff into an office on Brogdon Exchange in Suwanee,” said GBMB executive director Thomas Hammond. “The remainder of the Duluth-based staff will move into a local church. These accommodations are temporary, but will serve our needs until we secure a permanent office.”
GBMB also noted the move will provide “an opportunity for more Cooperative Program funds to go to ministry and missions.”
Effort to ‘right-size’ office space
Projections are that that the Mission Board could save hundreds of thousands of dollars a year on utilities, maintenance and operational costs by moving out of the Sugarloaf building.
Discussions on the need to sell the Sugarloaf property began more than a decade ago in the Georgia Baptist Executive Committee.
The Mission Board went under contract to sell the building in April 2021, but the buyer pulled out in August 2022 after Gwinnett County officials refused to approve a plan to create a residential and retail development on the 40-acre property.
“It makes sense to right-size our office space,” Hammond noted. “It’s the prudent thing to do. Especially with having much of our staff already serving out of the office and in the field.
“By leasing the building,” he noted, “we continue to be good stewards of Cooperative Program funds intended to strengthen our churches and encourage our pastors as they continue their work to reach Georgia.”
Selling the building has long been touted as a means to save costs and push more financial resources to the field.
“We’re excited about what this means for the future work of Georgia Baptists and how many new doors these resources will open for evangelism, church planting and ministry,” Hammond said.
EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Roger Alford and originally published by the Christian Index.
