Keep the church space. Let the rest of the project help pay for it.
Church Space Poland is built around a simple principle: a church does not need to finance 100% of a development if it only needs a fraction of its usable area.
In the working model, the church retains roughly 15% of the usable space, while the remaining area creates commercial or community value that helps finance the wider project.
The logic in five steps
The model moves from fundraising to land, from land to development, from development to value, and from value back into the next project.
Seed capital
Raise the strategic capital required to secure land or the initial equity position.
Acquire the site
Land becomes the asset that unlocks the wider development.
Build mixed-use
Create permanent church space inside a larger commercial or community project.
Release value
Sell, lease or operate the non-church area so the wider project helps finance itself.
Recycle capital
Return capital and know-how to the system so the next project starts stronger.
The 15% principle
The key to scalability is that the church need is expressed as a percentage of a larger project. The exact share will vary from site to site, but the working model uses approximately 15% as the retained church area.
15% church / 85% value-generating space
The church keeps the space required for worship, children, youth, small groups, training and weekday ministry. The remaining area creates the economic engine of the project.
This ratio is illustrative, not fixed. Planning rules, site economics and church needs will determine the final mix.
How big does the whole project need to be?
Choose the permanent church area required. The calculator assumes the church occupies 15% of usable space.
| Church need | Total project | Other space |
|---|---|---|
| 100 m² | ≈ 667 m² | ≈ 567 m² |
| 500 m² | ≈ 3,333 m² | ≈ 2,833 m² |
| 1,000 m² | ≈ 6,667 m² | ≈ 5,667 m² |
What can the other 85% be?
The model does not depend on one specific type of commercial use. The non-church area should respond to the local market, planning rules and the needs of the district.
Commercial space
Offices, services, retail or other saleable / rentable uses that create economic value.
Residential or mixed-use
Where planning permits, residential or mixed-use development may create a strong economic engine.
Community functions
Childcare, senior activity, education, culture or other locally useful functions can complement the project.
The model becomes powerful when capital returns
A normal building campaign ends when the building is completed. Church Space Poland is designed so that value created in the wider development can return capital to the system and help unlock the next location.
Raise capital for the first site.
Permanent church space is created inside a larger development.
Commercial value sends part of the capital back into the system.
Recovered capital helps unlock the next project.
Sequential at first
The early model may work one project at a time: Warsaw → next site → next city.
Parallel later
If the capital base grows, two or more developments could eventually run at the same time.
Know-how compounds too
Each project adds experience, trusted partners, legal structures, design knowledge and credibility.
This is the replication engine
The goal is not simply to repeat buildings. It is to repeat a tested process.
What stays the same — and what changes locally
A repeatable model should not mean identical buildings. The financial logic can remain consistent while each project adapts to the city, district and congregation.
What stays the same
What can change
Warsaw is where the model gets tested
The first project is intended to serve SCh Zachód as the pilot community. The working church need is approximately 500 m², which makes it a useful real-world case for testing the 15% logic.
At a 15% retained share, a 500 m² church area implies a total usable project of roughly 3,333 m² — before site-specific planning, circulation and technical factors are included.
The model works only if the first site can be secured.
That is the purpose of the First Fund: raise the initial catalytic capital required to start the Warsaw pilot and begin the capital-recycling cycle.