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.
The lease agreement was made public in October 2021 in court filings when the church sued Progressive Investments and the Baptiste Group for three months of unpaid rent and possession of the property. The lawsuit, originally filed in Hamilton County General Sessions Court, has since been moved to federal court for Eastern Tennessee, though lawyers for the church and the Baptiste Group are arguing in court filings whether to return the case from federal to local court.
Gretchen Baptiste, co-owner of the Baptiste Group, told the Times Free Press her organization remains current with paying the monthly rent to Redemption to the Nations. The money is set up to autopay each month from the group's bank to the church, and the group has received notifications that the money has been sent but the church is not depositing the funds, she said.
"The payments have been made on time and continue to be made, although they weren't accepting them," Baptiste said.
Lawyers with Chambliss, Bahner & Stophel, which represents Redemption to the Nations, did not respond to a request for comment Thursday.
Court filings did not list a lawyer for Progressive Investments Group. Fabiola Fleuranvil, a South Florida real estate developer who operates the group and signed the lease with the church, did not respond to a request by email for comment Thursday. Fleuranvil also manages the marketing and communications agency Blueprint Creative Group.
The lease was based on Tennessee licensing the facility, and the tenant could end the lease if the federal funding for the operation was ended or denied.
The Tennessee Department of Children's Services licensed the shelter to house unaccompanied migrant children in May 2020. Children detained at the border would be moved to shelters like the one in Chattanooga to stay for several weeks while social workers found a sponsor to care for them before a scheduled court appearance. Children began arriving at the Chattanooga shelter in November, around six months before news reports publicly revealed the existence of the shelter and the organization became a topic of outrage from lawmakers who pointed to it as an example of a lack of transparency from President Joe Biden's administration.
"We have a great deal of concern about these kids and the trafficking that will continue if we don't secure the border and if the federal government doesn't provide transparency around those children, and that's what we've been after," Gov. Bill Lee said in June about the shelter.
In May 2021, state legislators launched a group to study the presence of unaccompanied migrant children and refugees in Tennessee, specifically to understand how migrants were coming into the state and ways to increase transparency from the federal government. The committee is expected to release a report on its findings this month.
In July, the Department of Children's Services suspended the residential child care license for the Baptiste Group to run the facility after a child escaped and several allegations of child abuse were made. Three former employees of the operation were arrested on charges related to misconduct at the facility.
Early in 2021, Kevin Wallace, lead pastor at Redemption to the Nations, said his church's involvement was part of a years-long push to be more involved with national immigration issues.
"They are vulnerable and they have no one to advocate for them, and we're just trying to help," he said. "That is in keeping with our vision as a church. It's in keeping with the mission of the Gospel, and that's why we made the decision. And I understand people aren't always going to recognize why we do what we do."
Contact Wyatt Massey at wmassey@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6249. Follow him on Twitter @news4mass.