A Chattanooga megachurch stood to be paid $2.88 million from a lease agreement to house unaccompanied migrant children at a church-owned facility.
However, the federally-funded shelter, which was shut down last year over allegations of child abuse, allegedly stopped paying rent and is now the subject of a lawsuit in federal court, according to court records. Leaders with the shelter argue the church stopped accepting their payments last summer.
Redemption to the Nations, located in Highland Park, owns the property that drew statewide and national attention in the summer of 2021 after video was published of migrant children getting off a plane in Chattanooga to be bussed to shelters or connected to sponsors in the region.
In September 2019, the megachurch leased its property on Vance Avenue to the Miami-based Progressive Investments Group. The investment group then sublet the commercial space to the Georgia-based Baptiste Group to operate the shelter for up to 200 children under a federal contract from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.
The terms of the six-year commercial lease included a “base rent” of $40,000 a month as well as an additional monthly fee of $1,200, totaling $2.88 million for the church over the course of the lease, according to a copy of the lease included in federal court records.