The 58,000+ SF Zarephath Ministry Center project was birthed many years ago when Urban Impact, a young adult ministry, was looking to build a new athletic facility to more effectively reach out to the community. Fenton Construction was brought on board as the Construction Manager to work closely with the site engineer and project architect in the design and budgeting of the project.
Due to the location of the project, across the road from the Delaware Raritan Canal, it took several years to plan the project and obtain site plan approval. During this lengthy process two things were happening that affected the Zarephath Christian Church, they were rapidly outgrowing their existing facility and a couple of recent storms flooded the Zarephath campus. It was time for ZCC to find a new worship center. The perfect solution was to move ZCC into the new facility being planned for Urban Impact. Changes were made to the existing drawings to create a true multi-purpose facility that could be utilized for multiple programs: church, concerts, sports, offices, classrooms, etc. The challenge was to build a facility to meet the needs of multiple ministry programs all within a tight budget. The design of the facility is based on using Butler Manufacturing’s widespan pre-engineered metal building system. Fenton worked closely with Butler, the design professionals and the client in the planning and budgeting phase. The end result is a beautiful, fully functional multi-purpose facility. The building has a first-floor area of 49,050 sf with a 9,625 sf second floor, for a total of 58,675 sf. Among some of the unique features of the facility is a 130’ wide x 24’ high folding partition supported by the Butler steel and a 3-hour fire separation wall which separates the office and administration portion of the building from the multi-purpose facility. Extensive sitework development includes utility tie-ins for water, sewer and gas lines which were over 5,000 feet away from the building.
