Merritt Workspace

When Merritt Church closed after serving Sloan’s Lake for more than a hundred years, Lance Nading bought it rather than watch it come down. The idea was not to preserve a building. It was to keep the thing the building did: put people in the same room on purpose. He restored the sanctuary and the adjacent structure into Merritt Workspace, keeping the soaring ceilings, the original wood floors, the stained glass and the acoustics that make the room what it is. The burnt orange concrete floors on the workspace side went in during that restoration, poured to pick up the warmth of the brick rather than fight it. The former sanctuary is now the flex space and the café: member gatherings, workshops, fitness classes. Next door, fourteen offices and twenty-five dedicated desks hold everyone from solo freelancers to teams of eight.