THE SITUATION:

The Haus Bad Riedlingen (HBR) and Storchenblick (Storch) dorms are aging. These beloved buildings can only house BFA students safely and adequately for a little longer. After years of striving to keep these buildings viable, there is no longer a path forward to keep them operational as BFA dormitories.

THE SOLUTION:

To continue our mission, we will purchase this modern building just 200 meters from BFA’s campus. The success of this project will bring about considerable improvements to the BFA boarding experience and allow for the expansion of the program. This project will also help BFA on its journey to become debt-free within 5 to 10 years after completion.

Click to listen to our podcast and meet the team behind IMMEASURABLY MORE.

FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS:

Both Storch and HBR are considered historical buildings by the German government. As a result, they will not be demolished. BFA leases Storch from the city of Kandern. The city has not indicated how it plans to use the building after BFA vacates the property.  BFA owns HBR. Options for its future use will be discussed in the coming year. 

The German government regulates school dormitories; BFA must comply with these regulations, including a square footage requirements by student.  Due to their age, the Storch and HBR buildings already require significant costs to keep them compliant. Given these existing costs and the renovations required to comply with governmental regulations in the long-term, BFA’s Board of Directors and school leadership believe continuing to use these buildings as student dormitories is no longer good stewardship.

BFA explored the possibility of constructing a new dormitory building near the current Palmgarten, Maugenhard, and Sonne dorms. However, the cost of new construction is considerably more expensive than the building available for purchase. Additionally, this plan could not have feasibly included additional beds for new students. 

The building being purchased has served as a retirement home for about 20 years. Regulations for retirement homes have changed recently such that the building isn’t suitable for this purpose. However, it is well suited to serve as a dormitory, and it allows us to replace the beds in Storch and HBR as well as add another 20 beds. This means BFA can serve more families.

BFA has known about this impending need for many years.  Therefore we have been saving funds for a down-payment once we identified the direction we were moving towards. Between these savings and the sale of a building previously used as a small dorm, BFA will contribute 1.5 million euros toward the purchase of the new dorm.

BFA is committed to operating at a cost that empowers global mission initiatives. We do not expect the Immeasurably More campaign to negatively affect tuition or room and board costs in the near-term since the campaign seeks to raise the funds necessary to purchase and renovate the building without any additional debt. The increased capacity of the new dorm will allow BFA to serve more students than it currently does, strengthening the school’s financial standing in the long-term.  Through this campaign, BFA should become more affordable over time. 

Moving HBR and Storch into Kandern will have a significant positive impact on our boarding staff. Currently, the staff working at these two beloved dorms spend a significant amount of time driving students to and from Kandern. Because of HBR and Storch’s age, the staff also spend a lot of time and energy taking care of the buildings when it could be better spent on the social, spiritual and educational needs of our students.