Now’s your chance to turn church bells into door bells, as the Pacific Beach Faith Center site at 1376 Grand Ave. is for sale with a $1.25 million price tag.
“I’ve never done a church before, but I like the challenge,” said Josie Sarullo, Prudential Dunn Realtor’s listing agent for the nearly 4,000-square-foot church structure on a 6,299-square-foot lot at the corner of Grand Avenue and Gresham Street.
Sarullo said the church property has definite “possibilities.”
“I did some homework and found out that converting churches to homes is a huge fad nationwide,” she said. “They don’t have to be big fancy churches, just little churches, and people who love the idea of living in a ‘holy home.’ ”
Sarullo pointed out the Grand Avenue church is uniquely “positioned,” offering plenty of open space to be used by its next owner.
“We’re talking musicians, art collectors, yoga instructors, even a chef who could use that space,” said Sarullo noting the church has a huge kitchen.
“You could have cooking classes,” Sarullo said. “We’re looking for someone who’d like to turn this into a mini-mansion by the beach. It would be perfect.”
Noting that converting the church for residential use will undoubtedly “cost money,” Sarullo pointed out the property is just five blocks from Mission Bay and six blocks from the ocean.
“That close to the beach, $1.25 million is a hell of a deal,” she said.
Bishop Tom Murray of the Faith Center said the church’s congregation has shrunk from 100-plus a decade or so ago to about 15 today. He said many of those parishioners commute from outside the beach area, so it’s logical for the church to relocate elsewhere.
Murray said the church “has been there forever,” dating back to the early 1940s. He said many of the church’s original parishioners were Oklahomans who fled to Southern California to escape the Dust Bowl.
On the plus side, Murray said the church has just one story, and is configured in such a way that it “would make a very nice house because it really doesn’t have that ‘church architecture’ look. It’s brick-and-mortar and could be easily converted to anywhere from two- to four-bedrooms.”
Parking onsite however is limited and a problem, as it is along much of the beachfront, Murray said.
Faith Center intends to continue operating out of its present site until the property’s sold.
Though the church property’s only been listed a couple weeks, Sarullo said, she’s “gotten a call every day on it.”
For more information, call Prudential Dunn at (858) 353-6649 or email [email protected].