After years of planning, the Cochrane Alliance Church is almost ready to begin demolition for a huge renovation.

Everything but the sanctuary at the church will be changed with an estimated $4.23 million dollar expansion,  the original part of the building from the 80's will be demolished, a two story structure will go in its place.

The Alliance Church is hoping to add over 6,000 square feet of space to property, growing the Church from 19,000 square feet to over 25,000.

Mike Poettcker, Associate Pastor, Cochrane Alliance Church, says the space is greatly needed, the organization has come up with three main principle needs they'd like to address with the renovations.

Community space: "We were quite inspired by the Cochrane sustainability plan, and from 2011 to 2014 our rentals increased by 325%, and so we’ve determined there’s great demand for affordable community space," Poettcker explains. "So we wanted to create more space to be more accommodating, as well as optimize our space so more groups can get more use out of buildings.

Youth programming: "We have so many kids coming on a weekend and during our programs so we wanted to create more space to accommodate things like Sunday school, and children's and youth programming".

Adequate space to accommodate a growing staff.

The Church began fundraising a year a half ago, and is still working to raise $700,000 for the renovations.

"We raised about $2 million in pledges made towards that from the congregation, about $1.2 million from those pledges have come in. In partnership with our denomination we've determined that we'll be able to carry a $1.5 million dollar mortgage. Which leaves us with $700,000 to reach our goal."

The Cochrane Alliance Church will hold its final service this Sunday, July 24, followed by a sod turning event. The first off site service will be held on July 31, at 4pm.