In July of 2006, while Reverend Marion Tucker, of the Central
District Turning Point Community Church of God in Christ, was visiting
his sick mother in Arkansas, word got back to him that a vacate notice
had been put up on the church. Bernice Lee—a former congregant
back in Seattle and the majority owner of the building—had posted
the notice. Tucker had only one month to move out of the building. “We
tried to negotiate… but she wouldn’t talk to us,” Tucker says. “When
I got back from [Arkansas], she told me to talk to her attorney.”
Tucker hired his own lawyer, Eric Brunstrom, who filed a complaint
to keep Lee from evicting Turning Point from the property. Turning
Point was able to stay put, for the time being.
In 2000, Tucker says Lee, 81—a longtime
friend—approached him about acquiring a church of his own.
Tucker, 64, had been spreading the gospel for nearly 40
years—renting out space in another South Seattle church—and
was ready to finally settle down with his flock. “I felt like I’d known
her a long time,” Tucker says. “She came to me and convinced me we’d
get this church together and we’d never have to worry about relocating
again.”
It seemed Lee had found the perfect place for Tucker to move: an old
church, built in 1960, in the heart of the Central District. King
County records show that Lee made a $300,000 offer on the church before
she contacted Tucker about acquiring the space in 2000.
Lee asked Tucker about moving into the space, and while he didn’t
have the cash to buy the building outright, Lee paid $90,000 to the
property owner while Tucker paid another $10,000. Tucker says the
$90,000 was supposed to be a loan and he planned to pay Lee back when
he was able and continue making payments on the property. “We bought
the church together, but she had the most money into it,” Tucker
says.
Indeed, Tucker continued making monthly payments on the property,
although Lee claims the payments were for rent to her. However, by
2006, it became clear Lee wasn’t ready to give up the church,
apparently changing the terms of their verbal agreement. That’s when
Lee tried to evict Turning Point from the property.
Tucker hired a lawyer and stayed put while the two former friends
fought things out in court. By the time the case went before King
County Superior Court judge Michael Spearman, Tucker had put in over
$150,000, all to the original owners of the property, while Lee had put
in $120,000.
Because Tucker and Lee had essentially split the cost of the
property, Judge Spearman has given Tucker the opportunity to take
ownership of the building, as long as he can buy out Lee’s half, which
is now worth substantially more than the $90,000 she originally paid.
Tucker has 45 days to raise as much as an additional $250,000, or both
parties will have to sell the property—perhaps to condo
developers—and split the proceeds.
* * *
Back in 2000, when Turning Point moved into its new digs at 720 24th
Avenue South, the church’s 50 members opened a Montessori school to
serve neighborhood families, held “hot dog and pop” parties in their
parking lot, and began programs to feed the homeless in the area.
But one day in June 2004, Tucker and his parishioners showed up to
the church to find a for-sale sign posted in the parking lot. This was
obviously a sign of things to come. Tucker questioned Lee about the
sale, but he says he was told the parking lot wasn’t part of the
original deal. Lee sold the parking lot to a developer for
$200,000—four times what she paid for it—who threw up town
homes, which are now buttressed up against the church.
Dismayed by the loss of the church’s parking lot and the sudden
tension between the church and Lee, Tucker soldiered on. After years of
making monthly payments on the building, Tucker thought he was getting
close to paying off the owner of the building. That is until Lee told
Tucker that she was no longer interested in selling the property to the
church. “She had a change of heart,” Tucker says. “She said she’d rent
it to us, but she didn’t want to [sell] it.”
Tucker says Lee left his congregation in March 2005. Since Lee had
fronted the money for the church, her name was on the deed and she was
still the legal owner of the property.
While Tucker says he and Lee had an oral agreement to purchase the
property, nothing was in writing, so the burden was on Tucker to
provide proof that he’d intended to purchase the property, rather than
rent it from Lee. However, Brunstrom showed the court that Tucker had
delivered 51 $1,500 checks to the building’s former owners between
November 2002 and May 2006, rather than paying rent to Lee, although
she claimed the checks were for rental payments. Apparently, the court
agreed. Judge Spearman issued an oral opinion, giving Tucker a shot at
gaining control of the building.
However, given that Lee still owned 50 percent of the
building—Tucker never paid off the $90,000—Judge Spearman
gave Lee a 50 percent lien on the property. So, while Tucker has first
dibs on the property, if he’s not able to buy Lee out—the
property is likely to be reassessed at $500,000, so Tucker will owe
$250,000—he could be forced to sell the church, putting him right
back where he started.
The Stranger was not able to contact Lee, but her attorney,
Ron Meltzer, says she had misgivings with the judge’s ruling on the
church. “Fair is in the eye of the beholder. We presented a different
view of the case,” he says. “We didn’t get everything we wanted.” While
Lee did get to keep the $200,000 she made selling the parking lot,
Meltzer says his client is still deciding whether to appeal ownership
of the church.
Turner’s flock has dwindled—down to 15 or 20—and if
Turning Point isn’t able to come up with a payment plan in the next six
weeks, the judge can force them to sell it to a third party. As
development peaks in the Central District, Tucker says he’s worried he
may have to sell it to a developer to pay off Lee.
Tucker says he’s already been turned down for several loans and he’s
not sure how he’s going to come up with the money. “We figured we’d
have to go into our personal savings and come up with the rest,” Tucker
says, although he’s not sure he can foot the bill.
Right now, Tucker isn’t looking at moving the church. He says he
hasn’t looked at relocating, but if he loses the property he may have
to. “I pray to God that I don’t [lose it],” he says. “But if that
happened, I’d have to move on. I believe the lord is going to take us
through this.” 
