Pacana Park and Community of Hope’s financial base could both grow in proposed dual real estate deal

The city of Maricopa and Community of Hope Church are in talks to make a deal that would add 10 acres to Pacana Park and deliver an unknown dollar amount in real estate sale profits to the church.

On the South end of Pacana Park is a 15-acre lot where the Community of Hope congregation plans to build a church where it will then move its services to from Pima Butte Elementary. The church would be west of Porter Road and north of Adams Way.

Community of Hope representatives plans to use no more than five acres for their church, which led them to offer the city the chance to buy the remaining 10 acres to their immediate north in what is believed to be a double-escrow transaction, yielding an immediate profit for the church and an immediate transfer of land to Maricopa, according to public statements made at a recent Parks, Recreation and Libraries meeting.

The exact dollar amount of either of the two proposed land-purchase transactions have not yet been released.

The extra land could mean two lighted fields for soccer and football for the park and an additional 150 parking spaces for use by Pacana Park, Parks, Recreation, and Libraries Director Marty McDonald said in a recent PRL meeting. McDonald also said the second softball field at the park would be retrofitted to match the original field.

“We still have not reached agreement on the terms of sale, no contract exists at this time and I highly doubt we’ll be on the Feb. 5 agenda,” McDonald said in a written statement to the media. “The land deal needs to close and then the next step is to go bid for engineering services. A lot has to happen before construction begins.”

Details regarding how the city and church might share parking spaces and a proposed community center were not immediately available.

Community of Hope’s lead pastor, Rusty Akers, declined to comment regarding either sale until after the close of escrow.

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