What is the average cost to build a new Kingdom Hall

by jworld 20 Replies latest watchtower beliefs

• 

  designs

  You pay for it, you build it, but you don't own it....

  Wasn't that called Indentured Servitude at one time.
• 

  no more kool aid

  I have no idea, but never having to set foot in it ......is priceless. NMKA
• 

  Band on the Run

  I know so little. Who holds title? What is the justification for such a large amount to WTBTS? It seems like kick back. I am also surprised how much Bethel micromanages. Local people should know best what is best. I can see some broad standards int'lly. Wow.

  My last Episcopal Church was not yet a parish. The church was recently built with grants and loans from the diocese. There was a payment plan for the loans. Coming up with the initial money would be impossible. We were the first E. church in this area. They kept announcing every year that the diocese met and decided to forgive most of the loan.

  I attended a ghetto KH growing up. No congregation would have had the money, My father was a maintenance man and property owner (of a sliver of property and a rickety house). They snubbed him. He was Mr. Moneybags to them. To our horror,he signed a loan for them. It was the only time they would acknowledge him. How do 3d world countries get KHs?

  Oh, my father had carpentry skills w/o being a formal carpenter. Most of it had to do with co during WWII. He completely redid our house himself. We were drafted and spent weeks as a family doing labor. My job was sanding. I sanded so well out of love of Jesus. Another brother had decent skiils. The coterie of public speakers and servants had no building skills. Frankly, I don't think my father knew any part of the picture besides where to sign.
• 

  yourmomma

  PaintedToeNail, yes that was the same one. i remember that as well.
• 

  Anony Mous

  I have access to all the buyer arrangements for the RBC. The most common discount is 15% of retail but for the basic materials ordered ahead this is usually 25% or more. Carpet is 50% off retail.

  There is a lot of waste in an RBC project. There are no project managers with any real experience so materials get shipped but never received, received but never distributed, distributed but not on time, on time but not correct so eventually the locals have to go to home depot anyway.

  The actual material costs are pretty close to 100k for an average project, land acquisition etc. takes more. There are a lot of 'fees' that disappear in 'approved witness' businesses for the big non-quick build work such as tree removal, surveyors, engineering, excavations, foundations etc. There are actually 2 or 3 companies I know of Witnesses that make their living doing RBC work.

  Also, regardless of donations, the land and materials are always fully costed in the loan to the branch. I don't know what happens to the donations even if land is given, the price of it is always counted towards the local congregation.
• 

  wobble

  In my Congo. we had a guy who was (is) an owner of a construction company. He would always get involved on any Q.B that was happening,even if it was hundreds of miles away, he liked to be the Big Know- Effin- Everything on site.

  One time for the benefit of the Congo that was building, he did a proper quotation that would allow his company to make the usual profit, it came out WAY cheaper than involving the RBC and their hangers on, it is another money making scam.

  Of course the Elders of the Congo concerned were persuaded that Big J wanted it done through the RBC, so all their pockets got lined again, and the WT got its cut. Corruption and Hypocrisy of a high order.
• 

  Anony Mous

  @wobble - It's not (really) a money making scam, it's a really bad team building excersice. The WT of course gets it's cut but there is fairly good insight into the money moving (I did have insight into it) because you don't want the locals to profit too much of course - they might get rich. The thing is that the companies involved in supplying are really happy because they get to sometimes double and triple the order because there are a bunch of retards that never did a thing like it in their life installing their products.

  Reminds me of a project where somebody put the glue down, let it dry, cut the carpet wrong, applied more glue and then tried to fix the wrong cuts by cutting pieces out of a fresh roll not knowing that it was also meant for the rest of the rooms. The project finished with the ugliest carpet that had bubbles, ridges, cuts. A whole new order (~$10,000) of carpet, more glue, first manual scrapers (which tore up pieces of floor) then rental of floor sanders and several new pieces of floor board and trim were required to fix it a few weeks after the official end of the project.
• 

  JimmyYoung

  Total BS. They get labor free and materials in bulk. If the cult is telling you a quarter to half a million its a lie to make the cult members give more. I would bet they built the 3k sf hall for around 80 to 90 grand.
  
• 

  joe134cd

  I don’t know if they done this world wide, but I remember in the local area when they started buying materials out of China. I remember they filled an assembly hall, with seats and a fresh lot of carpet out of China, at a fraction of the cost of what it was for it to be made locally with free labour. Btw the carpet looked ghastly, and everybody didn’t like it. I would also hate to think of the human right violations that would of taken place in order for those Chinese companies to manufacture for the cost they did.
• 

  FedUpJW

  Wasn't that called Indentured Servitude at one time.

  Well the Dubs DO pride themselves on being "slaves".