The church who earned a reputation of being able to raise astronomical funds will not be doing so to pay for its latest purchase.

New Creation Church (NCC) has told The Straits Times that it does not intend to hold a fundraiser to buy The Star Vista shopping mall.

They had been asked if they were going to take a loan, raise funds or use its reserves.

This follows an announcement on Nov. 22, 2019, that CapitaLand was selling the mall to Rock Productions, a business arm of NCC for S$296 million.

"Protect the interest of the church"

In NCC's Nov. 21 statement to Mothership.sg, the church’s council chairman, Deacon Yong Chee Ram, said that the "immediate objective of acquiring The Star Vista is both to protect the interest of the church and to preserve the good experience for all who come to The Star PAC".

In the same statement, the church also said that it expects the Star Vista to "generate healthy returns".

They had hired independent consultants to ascertain the viability of owning the mall.

Lots of donations

Boasting a congregation of 34,000 church-goers, NCC received S$122.2 million in donations last year.

Numbers publicly available on Charity Portal indicate that they also have S$632.9 million in its reserves. This is an increase from its 2017 numbers of $597.3 million.

According to The Straits Times, NCC had previously held fundraisers for the building of its S$500 million 5,000 seat Performing Arts Center at the Star Vista.

In April 2008, they made headlines by raising S$18 million in one day, setting a record that would be broken in February 2009, when they raised S$18.8 million in a day.

That record would be broken in August 2010, with a S$21.1 million effort.

The S$500 million cost of the building project was finally paid off in February 2016.

NCC said at the time that it had largely been financed by "voluntary giving of our congregation to the church as well as to the building".

Top image from Joseph Prince's Facebook and Google Maps