Seeking Sanctuary

Culture | April 20th, 2016

The team at Kilbourne Group wasn’t ready to take on another challenging project following the renovation of the Loretta building downtown in 2013. So when St. Mark’s Lutheran Church was put up for sale, they elected to pass on it. But their decision didn’t last long.

When they heard a developer had bid on the building and was going to demolish the more than 100-year-old church to make room for an apartment complex, they had a change of heart.

After buying the property, Kilbourne placed a sign out front asking community members what the building should be used for. Some suggested a grocery store or an event center, and one even suggested turning it into a monster truck that kids could drive. They took the safer route.

St. Mark’s Lutheran Church became Sanctuary Event Center, a full-service wedding venue capable of hosting ceremonies and receptions while also providing couples a place to meet with local businesses for everything from floral needs to photography.

“I think the trend that we’re seeing, again, across the nation but especially here in Fargo is people want that unique venue that they can go there for the whole day,” said Cam Knutson, business development manager at Kilbourne and one of four investors in the project.

Yet they knew they needed additional income to make up for the over $4 million renovation cost than the one-day-a-week weddings would provide them.

“There’s no business in the world that could spend that much money and then only operate one day a week,” Knutson said. In addition to hosting weddings and private events, they decided to fill the gap left in the Fargo music scene after The Hub’s closing by becoming a concert venue as well.

Music promoter Jade Presents owner Jade Nielson came on board as an investor along with Knutson, Aaron Duma and Jon Rustvang. The new venue will be capable of hosting concerts of up to 600 people, fitting in between the capacities of The Aquarium and the Fargo Civic Center.

While the Fargo Theatre has a capacity near 900, it doesn’t provide concert goers the mobility that a standing room venue does. “This venue actually is perfect for a stand-up venue which will couple really well with the Fargo Theatre since you have the perfect historic theatre that’s great for sit-down concerts and now you’ll have Sanctuary,” Knutson said.

One thing that was important to the team at Sanctuary was to please all demographics of the Fargo community through a diverse amount of musical genres.

“We didn’t want it to be categorized to one particular thing,” said Richard Pallay III, who managed Mezzaluna for three years before becoming general manager of Sanctuary in March. “We didn’t want it to be just folk, we didn’t want it to be just country, we didn’t want it to be just rap, we wanted to have a really nice eclectic option.”

As of now, Sanctuary has booked their first six concerts.

The venue will host their first event with the 10th anniversary of the BisonArts Gala on June 21 while the grand opening of the facility will be held on June 30. Until then, Pallay will be hosting tours of the facility while construction finishes.

“When it’s all finished, it’s going to be one of the premiere venues in the region,” Knutson said. “It is stunning when you go inside of it.”

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