“Fifth Street is a key priority of the council, and based on this location it shows investment in this area,” City Manager Anthony Snipes said.
Abounding Love will build its center on a 2-acre site southeast of Fifth and Independence. The development is led by Osagie John Okpamen, whose father started the church in 1999, then at a storefront on South Main Street in Stafford.
After two years the church outgrew its space and leased a space in a strip center at 12240-P Murphy Road in Stafford.
Proposed site for the Abounding Love Christian Center.[/caption]The development plan includes a 14,700-square-foot building with capacity for 300 seats in the sanctuary. Currently the church has hundreds of parishioners, Okpamen said.
Abounding Love received a gift that put it in position to build the new space, and the aim is to provide a gathering place for the next generation of worshippers, he said.
"One of the things we say is that 'we are bringing love back into the community,'" Okpamen said. "We have been in the Stafford, Missouri City and Fort Bend areas for the past 20 years, and now we are digging deeper roots into the area we are currently serving."
The building will also have classrooms, a children’s recreation area and a bookstore.
"We want to create an atmosphere and an educational component that caters to families who have children from nursery to adult," Okpamen said. "There is only so much you can do in a limited space, but our new building will provide growth and give them more space to run around."
There is not a timeline yet for breaking ground on the project, he said.
“This will be a great improvement to the area,” Mayor Allen Owen said at the meeting.
