Detroit ends lawsuit against Marvin Winan’s Perfecting Church with new agreement

By Leonardo Blair, Senior Reporter Wednesday, June 21, 2023

After months of public sparring, officials in the city of Detroit have agreed to end a lawsuit against Grammy-winning gospel singer Marvin Winans and his Perfecting Church in Michigan for failing to complete their 18-year-old new church project at Woodward Ave & W 7 Mile Road in a timely manner.

“Under a stipulated order of dismissal, both parties have reached a resolution which we believe will result in Perfecting Church resuming construction at their 7 Mile and Woodward Avenue location,” Detroit Corporation Counsel Conrad Mallet Jr. said in a statement cited by Clickon Detroit. “The agreement includes specific commitments from Perfecting Church to the city of Detroit regarding the timeline for construction, permitting and financing.”

A lawsuit previously filed by Detroit officials asked a judge to declare the future home of Perfecting Church at Woodward Ave & W 7 Mile Road a “nuisance.”

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In their complaint against Winans and Perfecting Church, the city had asked that the church be forced to clean up the property by April 3 and complete construction or transfer the property back to the city so it can demolish the unfinished church building and sell the land.

City officials argued in their complaint that the land was sold to Perfecting Church in March 2005 for $13,000 with the expectation that the church would have invested in developing the area.

The land was set to feature a 4,200-seat auditorium for worship, a 35,000-square-foot administration building, a 1,000-space parking facility and 70 condos costing $60 million. More than 18 years after construction on that dream began, however, the property remains a symbol of blight in the community.

With the recent agreement between the church and the city of Detroit, there is now a reasonable expectation that work on the project could begin as early as spring 2024, as long as the appropriate permits, approvals and financing for the project are secured.

Perfecting Church, according to their website, began with eight members in the basement of Pastor Winans’ home on May 27, 1989, and has since “grown into a multi-location church and internationally known ministry” located at 7616 East Nevada.

“In the very beginning, Pastor Winans taught that ‘Ministry Means People’ and Perfecting Church has been an example of that teaching. With ministries that touch the full spectrum of the human experience, from the ravages of drug abuse to the hopelessness of poverty, wherever people are hurting, Perfecting Church will be seeking a way to heal it!” the church explains.

In addition to outreach projects such as the Perfecting Community Development Corporation, the Marvin L. Winans Academy of Performing Arts, the Amelia Agnes Transitional Home for Women, the Jenesta McCraw Youth Activity Center, and the Perfecting Community Care Center, the languishing new church project has long been touted among the church’s lofty goals.

“Perfecting, as termed affectionately, is experiencing the favor of God as He proves Himself by adding to the ministry. Perfecting Church will soon relocate to 7 Mile & Woodward. The new campus, which has over 20 acres, will include a 4,300-seat sanctuary, parking structure, office building, and market-rate condominiums,” the church boasts. “As a ministry, Perfecting Church strives to attain the purpose for which God has called. Not for vainglory but that we stand ready to meet the needs of the people; ever mindful of the phrase spoken in that vision to Pastor Winans, ‘they are coming to you.’”