For more than a year, the nearly pristine red brick and metal roof of College Park’s Incarnation Catholic Church on Edgewater Drive has camouflaged the charred remains of the sanctuary, which was burned by an arsonist last summer and now must be torn down and rebuilt.

When Father William Holiday arrived at work the morning of June 25, 2023 to prepare for mass, he didn’t notice the damage at first. He had missed the call the night before from the Orlando Fire Department. Even when he saw the caution tape across the front door, his only concern was that parishioners would have to use the side entrance.

“Well, then I went inside, and it was, like wow. I had absolutely no clue,” he told GrowthSpotter. Investigators determined that the arsonist piled cushions on the altar and doused them with an accelerant before setting them on fire. They started a second fire on the second-floor choir balcony, leaving the speakers in pieces and the organ a molten mess.

Eight fire engines responded to the emergency call, busting through the stained glass windows and punching a hole in the roof to douse the flames. Holiday said the structural damage from the intense heat, smoke and water was too extensive to make the building worth repairing.

Now the church is pursuing a $6 million plus reconstruction it hopes will be complete by summer 2026. It should end up with a far more functional building for its effort.

The Orlando Fire Department still has an open criminal investigation but it has not identified a suspect.

Since the church was constructed in 1990, there was nothing of historical value to preserve. It had been built initially as an Episcopal church. In 2012 the Anglican congregation — like many others at the time — reconciled with the Roman Catholic Church, which itself was a five-year process.

“Some of the things that were in the church before were holdovers from the old Anglican days that are not in conformity with Catholic practice,” Holiday said. “For instance, they had a columbarium inside for cremated folks.”

The building was cramped, and it wasn’t wheelchair accessible. And it didn’t even have restrooms —  apparently, they weren’t required by building code at the time.

Currently it’s surrounded by a chain-link fence — one of the conditions for approval to demolish the structure. The church has filed plans for a new building that will replace the burned-out structure and adjacent daycare building with a modern building that’s more than twice the size.

Wes Cross, who leads the church’s rebuilding effort, said the new 7,717-square-foot building will add components specific to the Catholic faith, such as a confessional, a baptistry, and separate sacristies for the priest and the workers.

It will also add pragmatic elements like restrooms, a sprinkler system, security cameras and a much-needed “cry room” for fussy babies.

“So we never had one of those before. I think there’s some people who I don’t think ever would have wanted it, now that they hear there’s a cry room they’re saying thank you.” Holiday chuckled. “The Lord works in mysterious ways.”

The church turned to Jackson & Ryan Architects, a Houston-based firm with an office in Palm Bay, that specializes in church architecture. The team worked closely with city officials to create a design that would meet the needs of the congregation and enhance the streetscape along Edgewater Drive.

Cross said the building needed to be ADA-compliant, but they didn’t want to build ramps, so they shifted the entrance to the southwest corner. That way they can place the building footprint right up to the property line and create a new courtyard that links the church to its parish hall next door.

They’re also opting to go with an all-brick exterior that matches the former building instead of a more affordable stucco exterior. That design decision added about $1 million to the project budget, which now totals $6.2 million and is fully funded from insurance proceeds and fundraising.

Holiday said stucco would have looked out-of-place on Edgewater Drive. So the general contractor, Welbro Building Corp., will bring in masons to lay the 99,000 bricks — about 1,000 bricks a day.

“It’s costing us a pretty penny to have it done in all brick, but it’s something that will match the aesthetic of the things that are around here,” he said.

The columbarium will be rebuilt as a covered porch on the north elevation, and the remains that were salvaged after the fire will be reinterred there.

Some of the features will be aspirational, like the 40-foot bell tower. The old church didn’t have a bell, and the congregation doesn’t have the funding to buy one now. But if a donor ever comes forward, they will have the tower available.

The stained glass will also likely come as part of a future phase. All of the original stained glass windows were destroyed by the fire. The side windows that survived the flames are faux glass and won’t be reused.

“There’s a lot of churches that don’t have stained glass,” he said. “They have plain glass on the sides, so that might be an interim thing. We would like to see the day when the whole church has stained glass, but I may not be here to see it. There will probably be a window or two —  at least initially there is a rose window.”

The master plan for the new church is scheduled for the October Municipal Planning Board agenda. If approved, it will go to the City Council in November for final approval.

Cross expects to have building permits in hand by next summer and anticipates a 12-month construction period. The demolition will begin just as soon the permit is approved.

Have a tip about Central Florida development? Contact me at lkinsler@GrowthSpotter.com or (407) 420-6261. Follow GrowthSpotter on Facebook and LinkedIn.