Transformation Church expands real estate portfolio with new $35M office tower
Husband and wife leaders of Transformation Church in Tulsa, Oklahoma, Michael and Natalie Todd, recently expanded the real estate holdings of their congregation with the acquisition of a six-story office tower for $35 million. The church previously closed on two other major real estate deals totaling $31 million, including a retail center.
The couple, who have only been leading the church since 2015 after taking over from founder Bishop Gary McIntosh, purchased the 196,350-square-foot corporate headquarters of energy company Unit Corporation. The company recently emerged from Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection.
"This sale positions the church for continued growth in south Tulsa and provides Unit Corp. the opportunity to retain two floors of office space," broker Rick Guild, who handled the sale along with colleagues Dilon Argo and Brad Rice of Newmark Robinson Park, told Tulsa World. "It was a win-win for both sides of this deal."
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Less than two years after purchasing a building that formerly housed the Spirit Bank Event Center in Bixby for $10 million to become the new home of his thriving congregation, Transformation Group Holdings Corporation bought the entire retail center around it for $20.5 million in the fall of 2020.
Tulsa County property records show that the holding group, which lists Todd as president, purchased PostRock Plaza, formerly known as Regal Plaza, at 10438 S. 82nd East Ave., from Moab Holdings Regal Plaza.
Todd said at the time that his church planned on injecting profits from their real estate investments into philanthropy.
"This has been an unbelievable journey for us," said Todd, whose church paid off their $10 million mortgage in six months.
A few weeks after his purchase of the retail center in 2020, Pastor Todd led his congregation in a $3.5 million one-day blessings spree in which they helped scores of human service organizations, churches and individuals, including one needy family that received a new car and $250,000 to purchase a home.
"The whole mission of this message was to show you more than I could tell you. Transformation Church gains nothing from blessing these people and organizations personally, but the reputation of the Kingdom of God is expanded because of what God did through us today," Todd told his congregation at the time.
"Our faith will be spoken of when we are dead and gone. They will write the book of your name. We will not just talk about the faith of Abraham and Isaac and Jacob and Sarah. We will talk about the faith of … John and of Charles and the faith of Hailey," he said.
In a recent interview with Hoda Kotb of NBC's "Today" about his new book Crazy Faith, Todd said he started at his church as the sound man. Four years later, he was promoted to lead pastor. It was "crazy faith," he said, that also helped him to go after real estate for his church.
"… 37 days after I became the lead pastor of our church that was less than 300 people ... I just hear this impression: The Spirit Bank Event Center is going to be Transformation Church. And I'm like, 'What?' And I had the audacity to write it down. ... Five years later, Hoda, I got the keys to that building. ... It was a little miracle after little miracle: me believing in what I wrote down. Me telling other people that this is possible," he said.
"And if it happened, this couldn't be us! This had to be some divine intervention. And, literally, step by step by step by step, and I had 'maybe' faith and 'baby' faith and 'lazy' faith and 'crazy' faith. But that's why I called this whole message that I'm giving people. It's like, this is a message of crazy faith. Because it's only crazy until it happens."
