Buddhists Offer to Buy Mayfair Road Church for Temple

A long-established Buddhist group has agreed to buy a Wauwatosa church and move its temple here from Milwaukee, but would like permission to have a priest live on the premises.

Phuoc Hau Buddhist Temple would occupy what is now Unity West Church at 4750 N. Mayfair Rd., assuming it can add a small living quarters.

For that, the group needs a conditional use permit, a proposal coming Monday night before the city Plan Commission.

Unity West has been trying for several years to sell the building, as its congregation has dwindled over time below the numbers needed to maintain the large property. Unity West's building is just over 14,000 square feet on 1½ acres.

"We once had more than 250 members," said Unity West board president Russell Gnant. "The Buddhists have more than 100 members now, so there is plenty of room for them."

Unity had an offer to purchase last year from Church and Chapel to operate a funeral parlor in the building, but the firm backed out, Gnant said.

"We went through all the permitting process," Gnant said, "but it ended up with Church and Chapel making a financial decision not to go ahead with it. We were very disappointed then, but I think this is a much better deal all around that the funeral home."

Unity West currently has no minister and no meeting quarters for its reduced congregation, Gnant said, and it will almost certainly lease rather than buy a new space. And so, he said, it would have had no place for its furnishings and other property.

"I call it a 'church in a box' for them," Gnant said. "We're leaving everything but the file cabinets. They get all the nursery toys, the chairs, whatever they want to keep.

"They get to walk into a complete church – like a newlywed walking into a completely furnished home."

Gnant said Phuoc Hau Buddhist Temple, which has long been at 1575 W. Oklahoma Ave. in Milwaukee, will want to convert some office space in the new temple to a small living quarters. The group is under contract to buy, he said, contingent upon getting all necessary permits.

Gnant said he couldn't be positive, but he thought that having the living quarters was important enough to the Buddhist congregation to make it critical to finalizing the sale.

"I should think that everyone would think this is a good thing," Gnant said. The property "will be kept up, there will always be someone there looking after it."

"They are very excited," Gnant said, "and so are we. It's been very difficult for us to make plans, waiting on a sale. Selling the building will allow us, we hope, to hire a minister and find a location.

"We want to stay in the greater Milwaukee area, as centrally located as possible."