Victory Villa - Renovation Project

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Victory Villa shortly after our arrival:  8/17/1999

  

Completed New Villa Building:  6/15/2005

Here you will find information about the ongoing
 efforts to renovate the Victory Villa property...

History of Victory Villa

Victory Villa was built around 1925 as a private estate named "MariCielo" (Sea and Sky).  It is said to have been built by an Italian film director.  It covers almost 3 acres of beachfront property overlooking the beautiful Bay of Cádiz and borders the Naval Base beach and port area to the East.

The property originally included extensive hand-crafted gardens, a built-in swimming pool, detailed waterworks for irrigation with fountains, and numerous hand-painted tiles depicting scenes from Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra's novel Don Quixote de la Mancha.  A grove of 30-40 foot eucalyptus trees cover the property. 

In 1975, Chuck Hall, one of the early pioneers of Overseas Christian Servicemen's Centers (OCSC), (now known as Cadence International), came to Rota to investigate the possibility of opening a servicemen's center near the Rota Naval Base.  After searching the town, he saw Victory Villa and was convinced that the Lord had provided the perfect location for ministry to the base.  Through a miraculous set of circumstances, the main house on the Villa property became available to rent and the Hall family soon established it as their home and ministry center.

A pen and ink drawing of fellowship at the Villa - by Melissa Jordan - 6/2/2000

Throughout the years since then, the ministry has continued to provide a home away from home for many sailors, marines, airmen and soldiers either passing through or stationed aboard the Naval Station.  The Halls left in 1977 and soon Gordon and June Gustafson took over the ministry.  Gus dreamed that one day the mission might own this picturesque property, and Bill and Jeannette Kramer, who followed the Gustafson's in 1981, continued the tireless work of  research, fund-raising and prayer so that the property could be purchased.  The dreams of many were realized in 1984 when the Lord saw fit to allow OCSC to complete the purchase of the property, including the guest house at the main entrance and all the land.

Over the next few years, the mission realized that the Villa's rustic beauty was giving way to a host of maintenance problems that needed to be addressed to preserve the investment made in both the facility and in the future ministry to the Rota area.  Missionary Tech Team, a Christian architectural firm, had drawn up plans for a major renovation and rebuilding project.  But in 1988 Spain passed the "Law of the Coasts" which basically reclaimed all coastal property in the country for public use.  This cast doubt on the feasibility of beginning the renovation.  The town of Rota also made plans to acquire part of the Villa property as a final phase in developing the "Paseo Marítimo," a sea-side board-walk that already covers most of Rota's coastal access.  Some major repairs to the roof and other parts of the main building were accomplished during the early 90's during the ministry of Al and Pilo Letting, followed by some more inside remodeling by Larry and Evelyn Bentley in the mid 90's.  But the lack of funds and the legal permission to do a much-needed overhaul remained major obstacles to the work.

David Olander came to Rota after the Bentley's to "fill-in" until a more permanent solution to the Villa's facility problems could be discovered.  Dave made two major contributions to the project during his more than 3 years in Spain:  1) He arranged for the payment of  years of property tax notes that were past due on the Villa, 2) and he finalized the legal status of OCSC in Spain as a bona-fide religious organization, the fruition of years of ground work by the Lettings and others.  This gave the property tax-free status and made it possible to begin another attempt to organize a renovation of the main building.

When the de Rivera's came to the Villa in the summer of 1999, the living conditions there were less than ideal!  But they came with the understanding that one major goal of their ministry in Spain would be to see the renovation efforts through to a satisfactory conclusion.  The goal is to have a place that facilitates ministry of the gospel to the Rota military community.  Throughout the years, it has been said that building maintenance takes about 75% of the Villa directors' time and energy!  This trend had to be reversed!

The Villa Renovation Project consists of the following basic steps:
 (√ Completed, → Current Steps)

√ 1)  Evaluate the feasibility of the project, including investigating options for the relocation of the ministry to a new location.  Dave Olander, Bruce Dower, Al Romaneski, among others, have spent days in prayer and investigation, finally determining that our current  property is still the best choice of locations for ministry to the base.
√ 2)  Raise the Funds necessary to finance such a large effort.  It has been estimated that the level of work needed will cost over US$200,000.00.  In 1998, the mission leadership approved a major fund-raising project that centered on a series of  banquets throughout the U.S. which were intended to challenge friends and supporters of Cadence International to enter into a faith-promise to see God raise up the needed resources.  This effort has resulted in the provision of much of the needed funds.
√ 3)  Find Planning Help with the project:  The level of deterioration of the current main Villa building is such that it is in need of professional construction help!  After several attempts by volunteer contractors to provide the needed oversight to the project, God raised up David Julian, an experienced builder and a Navy construction contract manager to volunteer his services as a consultant to the Villa to get the needed work started.  He, in turn, located a Spanish architect, Salvador Osta Fort, who besides running his own architectural business in the Rota area, also works on the base as a construction contract specialist.  His expertise in this type work in Spain and his fluency in English, have removed major roadblocks of culture and language that plagued previous false starts to this project.
√ 4)  Design the project:  Salvador completed the renovation plans in December, 2002.  His work takes the best ideas from the Missionary Tech Team plans, along with suggestions from those involved in the project, along with the restrictions imposed by the Law of the Coasts, to provide a viable solution that should afford many years of strategic ministry in Rota.
→ 5)  Approvals:  Approvals from both the Spanish Coastal Authority and the City of Rota have been secured for the house construction (June, 2004).  We still await the final zoning change that will classify part of our property residential.  The mission has decided to sell a small 3/4 acre lot of the property to provide additional needed funding to complete the project and fund other required property improvements that will bring it up to current urban standards.  Please pray for this rezoning to go through soon. (9/2005)
√ 6)  Demolition:  Under Salvador and Dave Julian's direction, plans were made for most of the interior demolition to be done by volunteers, providing a needed savings off some of the initial project costs.  Local military friends, SeaBees and sailors off visiting ships have helped in this effort.  Here is a previous update report that described the demolition process:
 12/04/2003 - Today we had a COMREL (Community Relations) Project during which 27 Sailors from the USS Nicholas (FFG-47) moved approximately two tons of debris from the interior of the Villa and used it to fill an empty well shaft on the property.  This effort has resulted in the removal of almost all of the interior walls and ceilings of the old Villa.
√ 7)  Contractor selection was the next step.  We solicited bids from at least three Spanish contractors and then selected the best choice.  Construcciones Joaquin Ramos was our final choice.  The contract was signed June 1, 2004.
√ 8) Construction of the main house took 11 months to complete.   The contractor began work at the site in July, 2004.  We moved the de Rivera family into the completed building on June 15, 2005, 2-1/2 years after moving out!   The urbanization improvements mentioned above will be on a separate time-table.

Latest News:

 9/2005 - We are still outfitting the new house and completing the process of cleaning up the grounds and the apartments.  These efforts will be accomplished through work days and special projects.  We are also waiting for the zoning changes mentioned above to be approved by the regional government.  At that time, the second phase of urbanization improvements can proceed.  These include:  completing the sale of the 3/4 acre lot, a new wall around our remaining property, a multi-purpose sports court, a 20-spot parking lot, a paved driveway, installing new sidewalks, storm drains, sewers, and a new beach access roadway between our property and our neighbor to the East, which will meet the end of the 3rd phase of the public Paseo Maritimo, (Cement Boardwalk) to be installed on our cliff by the city sometime in the future.

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Web Page last Updated on:  9/3/2005