From PGA Superstore to Standout Community Church

St. Augustine, Florida’s Reverb Church finds a diamond in the rough and works with a design firm partner to shoot a hole-in-one.

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Principal Sandy Gibbes at Equip Studio in Greenville, South Carolina, had met Pastor Bryan Lamoureux of Reverb Church in St. Augustine, Florida, some years ago at an Association of Related Churches (ARC) conference. At one point, Gibbes and Lamoureux spoke again when Reverb staff was interested in purchasing a piece of land for a new build.

But the project fell through. It was just too much of a stretch for the young, growing church at the time.

Fast-forward to 2020, and an interesting new building alternative came to the attention of Lamoureux and Reverb Church: a sprawling PGA Superstore retail store in an all-but-forgotten area of St. Augustine known as the World Golf Village Community.

“Bryan called Equip and he and I talked about 'what if,'” Gibbes says of the initial thinking on the logistics of adapting the 34,000-square-foot abandoned retail space into a contemporary community church.

Equip Studio’s finding was that it would work.

Assessing potential handicaps

So Reverb purchased the building based on the Equip team’s findings, and documentation began under the guidance of Equip Project Manager Madison Polk. A team of Equip architects then designed multiple concepts, and one of them deeply resonated with Reverb staff.

“With big box renovation there’s not this sense of verticality. But the atrium ... causes everyone to look up … like looking up to heaven.”

>Sandy Gibbes, Principal, Equip Studio, Greenville, SC

“The original layout of the building had a large atrium in the middle with a practice putting green,” Polk notes. She and the Equip team then went to work figuring out how to incorporate the atrium putting green space into a worship environment.

“With big box renovation there’s not this sense of verticality,” Gibbes says. “But the atrium that Madison documented and designed around, with a cool, unique light fixture (as a focal point), causes everyone to look up … like looking up to heaven.”

With the atrium-to-worship space design in place (with AV elements to come from Crown Design Group of Bradenton, Florida), the Equip team and Polk came up against a jurisdictional hurdle in the World Golf Village Community area of St. Augustine—and Reverb Church’s project was the first to have the new rule applied to its permit.

So not only did the Equip team have to change the occupancy from retail to a church, which is a usual component of adaptive reuse projects, “We had constrictions to the layout of the second floor, [meaning it] could only hold 300 occupants,” Polk describes.

“The original layout of the building had a large atrium in the middle with a practice putting green."

>Madison Polk, Project Manager, Associate AIA, Equip Studio, Greenville, SC

Gibbes adds, “Madison did a great job of working through their permit. And we built shell space in the second floor that they’ll build into office space. Madison navigated this code restriction and got us ready for another phase, [the] Phase II office upstairs.”

Depending on how the Reverb ministry evolves, Polk notes the church will have the flexibility to put one of several different office configurations on floor two.

Another hurdle the team experienced was brought on by building material shortages following the pandemic.

“They waited on lights and chairs due to supply chain delays during the time,” Gibbes confirms.

From water hazard to water happening

One surprise aspect of the Reverb Church adaptive reuse project was something that designers almost never encounter, but it turned into a tremendous plus.

On the backside, the rounded building and the whole concentric circle concept of it gently wrapped around a beautiful central pond.

“There was the backside with this gorgeous pond and pedestrian walkway,” Gibbes describes. “We could tap into these greenspaces and connection spaces and really step into it. You don’t get that in the big box chains.”

Whereas the World Golf Village Community had once enjoyed Independence Day celebrations with fireworks around the lake, the property had sat dormant and still before Reverb Church came.

“There was the backside with this gorgeous pond and pedestrian walkway ... You don’t get that in the big box chains.”

>Sandy Gibbes, Principal, Equip Studio, Greenville, SC

But now, Gibbes notes, “Bryan at the church says they’ll bring [the celebration] back sometime in the future.”

Reverb Church’s new coffee shop will open to the public in the near future, as well, and provide an everyday gathering place.

Driving home a community destination

Reverb Church’s grand opening at its new location took place earlier this year, in February 2022. But Gibbes says the ministry’s plans for growth don’t end there.

As a member of ARC, with the organization's focus on helping ministries with the process of church planting, Reverb has plans for even greater community connection in the future by moving to a multisite model.

But for now, the church staff and family are relishing the newfound community connection that their new PGA store-turned-worship center has brought to St. Augustine.

“I caught up with the church recently,” says Equip Studio Communications Director Morgan Reynolds. “They were really seeing a positive impact and noticing so much more life in the community since Reverb opened.”

He adds, “They’re counting around 1,000 per Sunday in the village circle, and they’re seeing visitors and tourists coming to worship too. The church is excited. They’re targeting 2023 as being a more community-focused year, and they’re connecting with various businesses in the development.”

Since Reverb Church opened its new doors, other businesses have opened in the community, as well.

As Gibbes says of the new center of activity and worship, “God’s in it.”

Project Players:

  • Architectural Design: Equip Studio
  • Principal - Saunders "Sandy" Gibbes
  • Project Manager - Madison Polk
  • Interior Designer - Haley Baldwin
  • Production - Daphne Noegel
  • Image Credits: Electric Soul Creative
  • General Contractor: Bent Construction
  • AVL: Crown Design Group
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