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In May 2022, the Rev. Solomon Kinloch Jr. announced his megachurch planned to buy a former movie theater site in Southfield and convert it into a church, community space, and a resource center for people in need.
More than three years later, as Kinloch runs for mayor of Detroit, the former AMC Star Southfield theater still sits empty after an unusual land deal in which Triumph Church bought the property in May 2024 and then transferred it on the same day for $1 to a newly created company solely controlled by Kinloch, according to county records obtained by Metro Times.
The LLC, “Triumph Southfield Property,” was created six days before the sale and lists Kinloch as the sole resident agent, state records show.
The property is valued at $6.6 million.
By switching ownership to a private company, Kinloch subjected the land to annual property taxes of approximately $200,000 a year. State law allows churches and other nonprofits to own land without paying property taxes on it. Once placed in a private LLC, the property does not qualify for that exemption.
According to tax records, Kinloch’s company failed to pay its outstanding $228,447 tax bill on the property by the Sept. 2 deadline, resulting in a $7,934 interest payment. The tax bill also appears to include a delinquent $49,557 water bill. Under Michigan law, cities can add unpaid water and sewer charges as a lien to the property and roll them onto the owner’s property tax bill.
On May 21, 2024, Triumph Church bought the former AMC Star Southfield theater, according to property records. The Oakland County Register of Deeds redacted the purchase price and transfer tax on the deed, leaving the amount Triumph paid unclear. The property was quickly transferred to Kinloch’s LLC for $1, and his company took out a $2.175 million loan from CRE Bridge Capital and put the theater up as collateral, including the right to collect any future rent, records show. According to the mortgage, the loan must be paid off by Nov. 16, with a possible extension to May 16, 2026.
CRE Bridge Capital’s website describes the Southfield loan this way:
“A $2,175,000 loan secured by a senior lien on a 178,050 sf building that was formerly an AMC movie theater. Loan proceeds were used to refinance an existing loan and to give the sponsor time to secure a construction loan to renovate the building. This is an amortizing loan as the sponsor will be paying down the principal balance each month with operating cash flow from its business.”
CRE Bridge Capital didn’t respond to questions for comment.
County records show that the church entered into a land contract in September 2022 with Manchester Star LLC of Shelby Township for the AMC property before buying it outright in May 2024.
Kinloch’s campaign didn’t respond to questions for comment, but Triumph Church offered a brief written statement.
“Triumph Church, its leadership and members have done its business in accordance with the law,” Chief of Staff Ralph Godbee, the former Detroit police chief, said.
But he declined to answer specific questions about the purchase, including how much the church paid for the theater, why it transferred the property to Kinloch’s LLC for $1, what the plans are for the property, who is responsible for the property taxes, and how the $2.175 million debt will be repaid.
Kinloch said in May 2022 that construction would begin in 2023 and take about 18 to 24 months. That clearly didn’t happen.
The records surrounding the property swap were obtained by Highland Park activist Robert Davis, who is suing the Oakland Oakland County Register of Deeds and Equalization Department to release unredacted public records related to the land.
In a court filing Thursday in Oakland County Circuit Court, Davis is asking Judge Martha D. Anderson to order the release of unredacted records and to declare that the church’s acquisition and same-day transfer “was NOT for a lawful church or religious purpose.” Davis alleges Triumph “fraudulently conveyed this property to a newly formed private limited liability company, Triumph Southfield Property, LLC, which is controlled solely by its Senior Pastor, Rev. Solomon Kinloch, Jr.”
Davis contends the sale violated Internal Revenue Service (IRS) laws that govern religious organizations because the church sold “a valuable commercial piece of property below fair market value to a private corporation” controlled by Kinloch.
He argues the county’s redactions conceal the true purchase price and hinder public scrutiny of a transaction that moved a church asset into the pastor’s privately controlled entity. Federal tax law forbids “private inurement,” or unreasonable personal benefits to insiders.
State law also requires nonprofit officers to act in a church’s best interests and scrutinize insider transactions.
Oakland County officials have declined to respond to our requests for comment on the redactions.
Davis’s court filing also points to the property’s tax status, and he argues that the assessment of local taxes on the private company “is evidence that the intended use” of the site “is NOT for a religious or church purpose.”
Godbee insists Davis is fabricating the information, even though it came from public records.
“We again have no response to another lie that is not based in fact offered by Robert Davis,” Godbee said.
During the mayoral debate Thursday with his opponent, Detroit City Council President Mary Sheffield, Kinloch alleged Davis was working for Sheffield’s campaign, a claim Davis vehemently denies. Sheffield alluded to the property deal, first reported by Metro Times last week, during the debate.
“While you’ve been building up Southfield, you could have been helping build up Detroit,” Sheffield said. “We know pastors all around the city that have contributed to economic development, who built housing, who helped transform their communities. His church is in my district, and our community wants to know where he’s been.”
Davis tells Metro Times he plans to sue Kinloch, his campaign, his brother Jonathan Kinloch, and Godbee, alleging they defamed him with false statements made in text messages, online, and in statements to the media.
“Rev. Kinloch has gotten so desperate that he is now making false and defamatory statements about me,” Davis says. “I hope he has a good lawyer to defend him in court because before the general election, I will be suing him, his campaign, Ralph Godbee and his brother Jonathan Kinloch for making false and defamatory statements about me.”
Davis argues the lies are “out of desperation to add smoke and mirrors to deflect from his unethical and unlawful conduct.”
Kinloch, who finished second in Detroit’s August mayoral primary, will face Sheffield on Nov. 4. He garnered 17.4% of the vote, while Sheffield won with 50.8%.
Kinloch has made his leadership of Triumph Church central to his campaign, but he’s declining to respond to questions about the megachurch.
This is not the first eyebrow-raising land deal involving Kinloch and Triumph Church, which has more than 40,000 members and seven locations, including two in Detroit with long-delinquent water bills.
For most of the past decade, Kinloch has lived in a $1.3 mansion in Oakland Township. Triumph Church bought the 5,177-square-foot house in April 2013 for $841,600, financing the purchase with a $631,200 mortgage, which Kinloch signed on behalf of the church, according to the deed and mortgage records. That left roughly $210,000 to be covered in cash.
Nine months later, in January 2014, the church sold the property to Kinloch for the same price, and he also financed his purchase with a $631,200 mortgage, leaving $210,000 to be paid in advance, according to deeds and mortgage records. Triumph Church officials declined to say who paid the remaining $210,000 when Kinloch acquired the house.
In the same month they bought the house, Kinloch and his wife Robin Kinloch secured another $84,000 mortgage for the home, records show. Then in March 2023, the Kinlochs opened a $725,000 revolving-credit mortgage.
Davis recently filed a complaint with the Internal Revenue Service, the Michigan Attorney General’s Office, and the IRS, requesting an investigation into the home purchase.
In 2016, two years after Triumph Church sold the house to Kinloch, its church on Joy Road in Detroit began falling behind on its water bills. The delinquency reached more than $60,000 in 2020.
Davis’s latest filing adds Triumph Church as a defendant in the lawsuit against the Wayne County Register of Deeds. That allows the church to argue if the documents should remain a secret, Davis says.
A hearing is scheduled in Oakland County Circuit Court on Wednesday.
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Steve Neavling
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