Gilbert Velez (’26) joined the Church Properties Initiative research team in spring 2024, during his sophomore year as a double major in Finance and Spanish, having recently added a Real Estate minor. As he graduates from Notre Dame this spring, the CPI team wants to wish him the very best, and to thank him for his stellar service to CPI, FIRE, and the field of church properties.
Gilbert’s first project on the CPI team was to support the Chicago Congregations Project, a multi-year study directed by Professor Kraig Beyerlein of Notre Dame’s Center for the Study of Religion and Society, along with Professor Ricardo Martinez-Schuldt of Rutgers University. The project demanded intense attention to detail as well as critical sleuthing skills, as research assistants were tasked with assessing thousands of worship sites one by one via Google Street View.
Asked about his favorite CPI project, Gilbert answered, “The Redevelopment Tracker. This project was the first one to expose me to the rapidly-changing scene of church real estate, not only in the United States, but in the world. Being able to stay up to date on adaptive reuse projects all the way to complete redevelopments of former church properties really satisfied my intellectual curiosity about what was happening in real time.” In addition to expanding and refining the contents of the database powering CPI’s Redevelopment Tracker, Gilbert’s work in this area led him to publish an interactive story map profiling projects developed on church property across the United States.
Gilbert reflected that “being a CPI research assistant helped me with my academic studies by introducing me to one of the largest real estate owners in the world: the Catholic Church. This then led me to take Professor Madeline Johnson’s class, Church Real Estate: Land and the Lord, to dive further into the intricacies of what and why new uses for former church properties were allowed.”
As a senior, Gilbert has been an exemplary mentor to the four new research assistants who joined the CPI team this year, heightening both the productivity and the collegiality of any shift he shared. After graduation, he plans to spend the summer studying for financial management certification and licensing, and then to begin his career as a Financial Advisor at Renaissance Financial in St. Louis, MO.
On behalf of the whole team, we wish Gilbert Velez the very best in his future career and endeavors as he moves beyond the Dome. Thank you for your contributions to CPI, and may God bless you!