Our offer has been accepted on a building for our new Buddhist Centre!
We are delighted that what is now our third offer for Beech House in Horsforth has been accepted.
We have been looking for a centre of our own to practice and spread the Dharma, even before we left Leeds Bridge House, which we rented. We thank you all for your generous pledges and donations that has made this possible.
Beech House is a single storey, detached building of stone construction with a pitched slate covered roof, within its own garden. It has a floor area of similar size to our former accommodation in Leeds Bridge House. Internally the property has an open-plan office, which will become our new shrine room, a glazed-partitioned meeting room, kitchenette, and toilets.
Beech House is a two-minute walk from Horsforth train station, which is on the Leeds to Harrogate line, with trains every 30 minutes in both directions. The line also has stations in Burley Park, Headingley, and further north and east to York via Harrogate. It is also served by buses 6, 30 and 50A. There are 32 free parking spaces along Troy Road, at the bottom of its drive.
We hope that the solicitors will be able to complete the purchase in the next few weeks, so we can begin using it.
The property is readily usable as a Buddhist Centre with minimal alteration. We will move partition walls to enlarge an existing toilet to form a wheelchair accessible toilet. We will also improve the insulation to help reduce the high energy costs we will face.
The purchase price of Beech House will be £282,000, plus solicitors’ and planning fees. To help pay for this we are taking a loan of £150,000 from the Windhorse Trust on favourable terms, 2% above base rate. We will have to re-finance after 10 years, by taking a commercial loan, which will be less favourable. We ask for your continuing generosity, so that we can repay as much of the loan as we are able, in order to minimise our future debt.
If any of you would like to know more, or if you are prepared to donate or fund raise, please see Andy at Sangha Nights or email the centre:
enquiries@leedsbuddhistcentre.
The Trustees