Dan Niss buys unfinished church building in Ontario

Lou Whitmire, Mansfield News Journal
·2 min read

ONTARIO ― Local businessman Dan Niss has bought the unsightly shell of a church on Park Avenue West after it sat unfinished for 15 years.

Dan Niss, president of Charter Next Generation.
Dan Niss, president of Charter Next Generation.

"At the present time we have no definitive plans. First step is to clean property, repair building and then determine the best fit for use of this structure," Niss, president of Charter Next Generation, said Monday.

History of church project

The Grace Brethren Church building project began in 1997 when Pastor J. Hudson Thayer said "Faith moves mountains."

The unfinished Grace Brethren Church at 1943 Park Avenue West was bought by Dan Niss.
The unfinished Grace Brethren Church at 1943 Park Avenue West was bought by Dan Niss.

The 45,000-square-foot church project went awry on numerous levels, the News Journal wrote in May 2008. There was no written contract, only a handshake and a $6.5 million bid package.

That's where agreement ended in the bench trial of general contractor Henry Gassaway versus Grace Brethren Church.

Magistrate Garry D. Dalbey ruled for the church in the six-figure financial squabble that divided members and left the facility half finished in October 2008. Gassaway, owner of Gassaway Masonry, 247 Stadium St., had argued he was due $459,416.93 for work already completed on the building.

Before the lawsuit, the new church project appeared to be going well.

Church members helped pay for new building

The Grace Brethren Church planned to sell its Marion Avenue church and move to the Park Avenue West site, having outgrown the Marion Avenue site and parking lot. There was no fundraising effort. Church members did all the preliminary work and helped pay for the project. The church purchased the land in 1994 and construction began in 2002, the NJ archives said.

There was no line of credit at any bank, or outside contractor. A pastor then at the church served as project manager. When completed, the church was to have a gymnasium, lecture rooms, offices, soccer field, baseball field, and a seven-acre wooded nature area, all at the rear of the property.

Neighbors expressed unhappiness at having to look at the unfinished structure for years, with one woman saying in the past it resembles "a Russian prison."

Niss and his wife Brenda Niss own the Westbrook Country Club. The couple also own Niss Aviation and plan to construct a restaurant at Mansfield Lahm Airport at the site of the now vacant Subway restaurant.

lwhitmir@gannett.com

419-521-7223

Twitter: @LWhitmir

This article originally appeared on Mansfield News Journal: Dan Niss buys partially built Grace Brethren Church in Ontario