Focus on Family Sells Property in California

Pomona-based Focus on the Family has reached an agreement to sell its California property, clearing the way to relocate the large evangelical media ministry to Colorado Springs by October.

The organization founded and headed by radio psychologist James Dobson announced earlier this month that it had agreed to sell its headquarters property in Pomona to the Cordova Chase Corporation for an undisclosed sum.

Cordova Chase, a Southern California real estate developer, agreed to purchase two buildings on the ministry’s nine-acre land. Focus on the Family is still trying to sell another six-acre parcel.

Focus spokesman Paul Hetrick said there is an April 15 deadline to close the purchase. That date would give ministry employees six months to prepare to move before the organization’s busy winter season, he said.

A Focus on the Family relocation office will open in May, and the broadcasting and publishing ministries will continue in a temporary facility until the new quarters are ready.

The organization, which carries a $27-million payroll, intends to buy at least 50 acres north of Colorado Springs, which has become a major hub for a number of evangelical ministries in the last few years. The location is along a major interstate, and the ministry will be using a $4-million grant from the local El Pomar Foundation to purchase the property. Focus officials said they hope to finish building a permanent campus by late 1992.