Faith Lutheran Church at 211 Easton Drive sold its nearly one-acre property and 17,278-square-foot building to the Susan Echarte Revocable Trust, for $1.485 million. Completed in 1984, the church campus was designed by Frank Lloyd Wright protégé Nils M. Schweizer.
Local philanthropist-entrepreneurs Arturo and Susan Echarte, acquired the property as part of their charitable support of Hope House Florida, a Christian nonprofit formerly based in Bartow that serves young mothers and their children.
The trust will lease the former church building, which it acquired May 8, to Hope House Florida for one dollar a month, Susan Echarte told LkldNow.
Tomasa Villaronga, a licensed mental health counselor who was named executive director of Hope House Florida in April, said the new space will “significantly expand” the nonprofit’s ability to fulfill its mission…