Not so long after its retirement in 2018, the R.E. Bennett Elementary building in Chehalis will find life once again as a place of education starting this fall as the new home of Christ the King Academy.
The Centralia-based private Christian school and its parent organization, Christ Covenant Church, officially closed on the sale of the main R.E. Bennett School building along Market Boulevard in Chehalis earlier this week.
“As of today, October 11, we are officially closed on RE Bennett,” Christ Covenant Church Elder Joe Stout stated in a Facebook announcement on Tuesday.
“Christ the Covenant Church and Christ the King Academy both are going to be moving to this location down here in downtown Chehalis,” he said. “We are incredibly blessed to have the Lord provide for us.”
According to Stout, the school, which was founded in 2021, expects to begin its 2026-2027 school year in the building with roughly 70 students enrolled across all grade levels, from kindergarten to senior year of high school.
Just a day before the announcement, the Chehalis City Council approved a development agreement with the church during its Monday night meeting, effectively signing off on the sale. The agreement also commits the church to paying for nearby infrastructure improvements agreed to by the previous owner RE Bennett LLC.
As of Wednesday morning, the exact price of the sale was not yet publicly available. In a video posted by the church in December of last year, Stout announced a fundraising campaign to allow for the purchase and preservation of the building. In the video, Stout set the fundraising goal at $2.7 million.
“This is a once in a lifetime opportunity,” Stout said. “Buildings like R.E. Bennett will never be built again. If we don't act now, this building and a part of our history could be lost forever.”
Another video posted in June announced that the church was under contract with the owners of the building for its purchase and needed to close a $50,000 funding gap to close on the sale.
The purchase of R.E. Bennett includes the main building along Market Boulevard and an empty lot to the south along Cascade Avenue. The purchase does not include the Cascade Elementary School building sandwiched between the two, which was converted into what the owners referred to as “family oriented” apartments.
According to Lewis County Parcels, that building is still owned by RE Bennett LLC, whose owners purchased the two school buildings back in 2021 for $1.875 million, as previously reported by The Chronicle.
At the time of purchasing the two buildings and the nearby lot the purchasing entity, Market Street LLC, which shares the same owners as current owner RE Bennett LLC, said it planned to convert both buildings into apartments.
As part of the new development agreement approved by the city, Christ Covenant Church will effectively take on the responsibilities detailed in an initial development agreement between the previous owners, RE Bennett LLC, and the city back in 2024.
The core part of the development agreement requires the landowner to reconstruct and repave Second Street “from curb to curb” and to finish the work no later than Sept. 30, 2028.
Stout said in a statement after the approval of the development agreement that the church expects the road improvements to cost upward of $630,000.
Stout added that the initial fundraising campaign announced in December of last year is ongoing. In addition to funding the work necessary to make good on the development agreement with the city, the church is seeking to fund significant work on the building's roof, repair damages caused in part by deferred maintenance, add heating to many of the classrooms, and improve building security.
Learn more about the academy at https://christthekingacademy.org.
