The Board of Directors of the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted in their September 27-28, 2011 meeting to sell the Hollifield Leadership Center at www.Hollifield.org. The announcement is on the www.NCBaptist.org web site. Here is an excerpt from the news story:
"The Board approved a recommendation from the Business Services Committee to sell Hollifield Leadership Center, located on a peninsula above the Oxford Dam on Lake Hickory, near Conover. The BSCNC purchased Hollifield Leadership Center in 2000 and has made major improvements and renovations since acquiring the property.
However, with Hollifield unable to operate in the black, the Convention can no longer justify expenses related to operating the facility. [Note from George: As the first director of Hollifield Leadership Center our goal was to operate in the black within five years. We accomplished that, but it was unable to be sustained after I left the employment of BSCNC.]
“From a business, and ministry, standpoint, selling Hollifield is the right thing to do,” said John Butler, executive leader for Business Services.
The property will be listed with a real estate agency in January 2012. Hollifield will continue to operate in 2012 until the property is sold. If it is not sold by this time next year, the committee will bring another recommendation to the Board.
Proceeds from the sale of Hollifield Leadership Center will be applied to Caraway Conference Center’s capital campaign and buildings related to the Caraway expansion will be named for Wyndolyn [Royster] Hollifield, who gave the majority of the $3,000,000 purchase price for Hollifield Leadership Center in 2000." [Note from George: Mrs. Hollifield only gave $1,000,000 of the $3,000.000 for the purchase of the leadership center from Duke Energy.]
Comments by George: Concerning the sale, in the current economic times it is reasonable to sell Hollifield. It is also strategically necessary since the present leadership of BSCNC has not been able to embrace the original purpose of Hollifield and its leadership development emphasis known as Lake Hickory Learning Communities, nor to find an appropriate way to repurpose the facility.
I must also admit that even though I was the first director of Hollifield, my earlier advice to BSCNC was to not purchase it, but to focus on something like the Lake Hickory Learning Communities without the overhead of a physical facility.
