On Dec. 27, following the announcement that Sacred Heart Catholic Church in East Toledo would be closed and demolished, I submitted an offer to the Diocese of Toledo and Epiphany of the Lord Parish to purchase the Church for $1 and repurpose it for a community-beneficial purpose, assuming positive results from feasibility studies. By doing so, I and my investors were willing to save the Diocese/Parish the cost of demolition (recently estimated by a Diocesan official to be $800,000 — $1 million) and take on the Diocese/Parish’s estimated $1.5 million — $2 million in necessary structural repairs and roof issues. By letter of Feb. 15, Bishop Thomas of the Toledo Diocese advised me, without explanation, that my purchase offer was rejected.
