Revive Alaska sells church at center of controversy

ANCHORAGE, Alaska (KTUU) - A local nonprofit group that has been under federal investigation has now sold its church, which was at the center of a controversy after the group used part of a $750,000 grant from the Municipality of Anchorage to buy that church.

On Wednesday, a U-Haul truck was seen in front of the church that the nonprofit group, Revive Alaska Community Services, purchased last summer.

RACS was awarded a $750,000 ARPA grant from the municipality in December 2021. ARPA is a federal COVID-19 relief program. RACS’s president, Prince Nwankudu, told Assembly members the grant would go towards repairing a barn in South Anchorage, which the nonprofit was using as a makeshift food pantry at the time.

But when RACS received the money, it tore down the barn, saying it was beyond repair, and used part of the funds to purchase the church in Midtown instead. Now that church has been sold to the Alaska Corporation of Seventh-Day Adventists, based in South Anchorage.

Efforts to speak with someone at RACS were unsuccessful. It is not known if the group will re-open its food pantry somewhere else.

According to the Multiple Listing Service, RACS originally purchased the church in June 2022 for $1.85 million. Nwankudu then put the church on the market for $2.2 million and it closed yesterday for $1.96 million.

Copyright 2023 KTUU. All rights reserved.