SAUGATUCK, Mich. (Feb. 10, 2014) — A Chicago Presbyterian church’s Saugatuck campground is being sold to pay a $7.9 million debt.
According to Chicago Tribune, Chicago Presbytery church commissioners voted 154-89 Saturday to approve the sale.
The debt is the result of a 2007 settlement with several men who claimed they had been sexually abused by a Presbyterian minister.
The Presbytery took out a multimillion dollar loan using the campground as collateral, a decision that at the time was unknown by many of the roughly 33,000 Chicago church members, according to the Tribune.
The 130-acre Presbyterian Camps property in Saugatuck was sold to developer David Barker for a total of $10 million. According to the Tribune he has proposed building houses on part of the land.