After nearly 20 years of effort, First Baptist Church Cantonment planning new home

First Baptist Church Cantonment is building a new worship facility across the street from its existing church.

This project has been nearly two decades in the making, as constituents of FBCC and its leadership have spent years fundraising and sourcing materials in order to build the facility, according to FBCC’s senior pastor Will Stone.

“The church has done really well … I think a new facility is going to allow us more space to do better things,” he said. “A lot of our folks have been in this since day one, but we’ve also had a lot of funerals during that process as well. (Some) didn’t make it to the end to see everything accomplished but there’s been a lot of work and dedication involved.”

FBCC needs the new facility due to the aging state of their existing church’s infrastructure and reaching capacity for attendance, according to Stone.

Additions like larger classrooms, a fellowship hall and an eating area are all planned, according to Stone.

Escambia County’s Development Review Committee reviewed the church's project on April 24 and it is on track to be approved, according to Stone. Church officials plan for multiple phases of construction for the new facility.

According to the church's website, their target opening date is summer 2025.

What's being built in the new facility?

The project's planned address is 298 Morris Ave., according to its project information form filed with the county. If approved, the new facility will have an access road onto both Morris Avenue and Monroe Avenue respectively.

FBCC plans for the new facility to be more than 12,000 square feet with 10 classrooms, a set of restrooms and 57 parking spaces, according to its site plans filed with Escambia County.

The church's new worship facility is planned for an 8-acre parcel of land that is mostly undeveloped, aside from an existing baseball field close to Woodlands Street.

FBCC proposed its updated plans for developing the new facility to the county on April 22 after filing their first set of plans in early February.

What were their former plans?

FBCC initially filed for approval of the new facility on Feb. 1 but modified their plans before resubmitting on April 22.

In the latest set of plans filed with the county, the facility is proposed to be about 12,625 square feet instead of nearly 20,000 square feet and have less than half the parking spots originally intended.

In their first set of plans, the church officials proposed for the worship facility to be approximately 19,440 square feet with 131 parking spaces and three access roads onto surrounding streets, according to its site plan filed with Escambia County.

The extra access road in the first set of plans was intended to provide access onto Coulter Avenue.

This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: First Baptist Church Cantonment proposes worship facility project