Assalaamu alaikum wa rahmatAllah!

It’s been two months since the end of Ramadan, and the last official update that we had on our new masjid property. On behalf of the MFC Leadership team, we sincerely thank you for your trust and patience as the team continues to navigate through this process of getting us into our new home inshaAllah. Alhamdulillah, the team has not stopped working, and I’m excited to share where we are at this time, as well as set expectations of how our timeline may look to get us into the new space. Bismillah, here we go!

Alhamdullilah, as you know, the community raised approximately $7.5M for the purchase of our new masjid, and alhamdulillah, we closed on the property right as Ramadan was beginning, on Feb 28th, 2025. We signed the papers and received the keys. 

So, the question everyone is asking - when can we start using the space? Great question. Before we can officially open this beautiful property for Jummah and congregational prayers, there are two main things that we need to complete from a County Compliance perspective:

1.) Updated Site Development Plan - This process covers requirements related to the designation of the building for assembly use and addressing exterior compliance elements. To get a head start, we began working through this process well before we even owned the property. Since then, we’ve been engaging our County contacts and addressing their technical feedback. Alhamdulillah, we’re pleased to report that the updated SDP has been submitted to the County as of May 27, 2025. This is our third submission and directly responds to the last round of comments we received from them.  It also includes an updated traffic study and exterior building considerations, such as parking calculations, landscaping and re-paving/re-striping the existing parking lot. 

There was a delay in completing  the traffic study due to the death of our dear Br. Montasser AbdulRahman (Br. Monty), who was leading this part of the work. May Allah accept all his work and reward him generously! Despite this setback, the team poured in extra effort to finalize the most recent version and get it submitted. We’re hopeful that we’ll receive feedback from the County within the next 30 days, inshaAllah. But of course, we plan, and Allah is the best of planners.  Please make dua!

2.) Use and Occupancy - This process covers requirements related to the interior of the building. For this process, we need to provide the County with several key items - (1) an interior design, (2) a structural design, and (3) Mechanical, Electrical, and Plumbing (MEP) plans. Alhamudulliah, this work has also been underway for quite some time now. The management team has been hard at work determining our needs for the space by engaging with various stakeholders — especially, the volunteers that lead our programs and keep MFC running day-to-day — so we can design the space that truly meets our community’s needs. We have also been working with professionals within our community to discuss initial design options that can get us into the building the quickest, and so we have a clearer picture of the anticipated construction costs.  An important procedural reminder is that while the U&O work is well underway, the County does not look at the U&O proposal until after the SDP is approved. 

So, does this mean we’re working on the final design for our “Dream Masjid” project?  Not yet. We’re not obtaining a permit for that final design at this stage (that project is still forthcoming, inshaAllah!) Right now, we’re focused on a design that involves only the necessary changes required to create a functional space that can be quickly approved by the County and can meet County compliance regulations - so that we can open for Jummah and daily congregational prayer as soon as possible.

So, where does this leave us? The process with the County is exactly that - a process. What’s in our control is to submit everything the county needs (inshAllah, we are targeting the end of July for this), and lining up a strong professional construction team. What we don’t have control over is the County’s review process. U&O permits processes can take multiple rounds of comments and resubmissions. We also have to factor in the availability of construction materials and inspections once we complete all our work. While we are aiming for a late 2025 opening, the truth is that all we can do is to continue to do our part as quickly and diligently as possible and make a lot of dua.

So then, what CAN we do? After several meetings and professional consultations, the most cost-effective and fastest way to open the space for the community use is to renovate the east side (left side) of the building into the musallah space, and use the west side (right side) in its current approved state as a commercial property and office building. So here are a few things we CAN do at this time:

1. We can utilize the west side of the building in ways that our intended use coincides with the current approved use. The leadership team has used the space for onsite staff meetings (picture below). In addition, we held our first community event in the large classroom-style room for our Converts and Co program.  Our operational leads are actively working with the team to identify ways we can use the space that align with its approved use and support our community’s programming needs until the east side is fully functional. So, keep an eye out for programs in our new space in the very near future inshaAllah!

2. If you haven’t had a chance to see the property yet—or if you’d like to reconnect with the space and see how things are coming along—you’re welcome to reach out to me or Sr. Asma Patel to set up a walkthrough. While we’ll be sharing designated times for these visits, if those don’t work for you, just let us know and we’ll do our best to accommodate. We’ll also have updated drawings available to share during these walkthroughs so you can see what’s next for the space.

Please note that the building is NOT open for congregation prayer at this time.

What else is new? We have a growing project team that brings decades of combined experience in construction and design.

- Mohamed Salah, an active MFC community member and renowned licensed structural engineer with over 18 years of experience in both highway and building design has recently come on board as our architectural and structural engineer in an official capacity for this phase (alhamdulillah!) Though, technically he has been by our side, guiding us since late last year. We are ever grateful for his presence on this project and for the hours of similar services he’s provided for our Waterloo Musallah over the years.  

- We also welcome Tarek Geblaoui as our new Project Manager and Commercial Developer and Lead for the G2P Project. He also brings over a decade of experience in the industry and has assisted with work on the Waterloo Musallah which we are grateful for, alhamdulillah. Asma Patel will be stepping down as our G2P Project Manager to focus on her ever growing role leading our Masjid Operations inshAllah. We are incredibly grateful for all of her efforts around the acquisition phase since 2023 and during this transition. 

May Allah grant them strength and accept their efforts.

As we finalize the initial design that gets us into the building, one thing I do know is that we are going to need your continued support to bring this vision to life. As we reported during Ramadan, the funds we raised allowed us to purchase the property — and now we’re working hard to get it ready for your use. We are continuing to work with our dedicated consultants to have a more detailed breakdown of our upcoming expenses, which we will share with you as soon as it's available. 

What is clear already is that as we take these important steps – both to make the property functional now and to ensure that it ultimately reflects this community’s dream masjid — we will rely on your continued generosity and prayers. So, please continue to remember MFC in your dua’ and your generous donations (and donate today if you can!)

We stand committed to keeping you informed of the progress of this grand project that we’re all a part of, together. InshAllah moving forward, we hope to provide more frequent updates such as this as well as announcements during Jummah. In the meantime, please continue making dua’ that Allah makes this process easy for us, and that He accepts this as a sadaqa jariyah from all of us!

- Ehab Hassan (On behalf of the Gateway to Paradise Project Team)