NASHVILLE, TN — On behalf of the African American Episcopal Church (AMEC), Avison Young is pleased to announce the sale of AMEC’s property located at the corner of Lafayette Street and 8th Avenue South in Nashville for in excess of $21 million to Circle South Development, LLC.
The site consists of 6 parcels totaling 1.714 acres on Korean Veterans’ Boulevard Circle adjacent to the Music City Convention Center which houses 1.2 million square feet of conference space. Plans for this site will be released at a future date.
Buck Haltiwanger, Principal with Avison Young, stated “This property possesses a number of different development opportunities and is simply the best site, with the best access, and the best visibility in Nashville.”
Ben Burns, Brent Basham, and Haltiwanger, all brokers with real estate firm Avison Young, represented AMEC in this transaction.
The property, which had been owned by AMEC since 1942, was the symbol of its independent printing and publishing capabilities, a source of pride, and the centerpiece of its global outreach ministries. The site served as the home of its materials research and development, as well as the publishing, printing, and distribution of all of the Church’s worship, education and ministry materials, including the official newspaper of AMEC, The Christian Recorder. Much as when the current facility was updated with cutting edge printing presses in the 1970’s and early 1980’s, AMEC intends to use the funds generated from this sale to design and develop a facility capable of providing “high quality resources to empower Christian believers to spread Christ’s liberating gospel, pursue justice and enhance the social development of all people.” Inspired by the recent relocation of both the United Methodist Publishing House and LifeWay from the immediate vicinity, AMEC took advantage of the uptick in land value trends in the Nashville CBD while significantly upgrading the technology of its Publishing and Sunday School Union facility. Roderick Belin, President/Publisher for AMEC said, “We are excited about the opportunity the sale of this property opens for the AMEC Publishing House and look forward to making a significant contribution to the ongoing development of Nashville with our new state of the art facility which will welcome not just African Methodists, but the greater Nashville community.”
The African Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC) was founded by Bishop Richard Allen in 1787 and incorporated in 1816. Today, with a worldwide following of over 3,500,000 people, the African Methodist Episcopal Church has membership in twenty Episcopal Districts in thirty-nine countries on five continents. The work of the Church is administered by twenty-one active Bishops, and nine General Officers who manage the Departments of the Church.
Avison Young (www.avisonyoung.com) is the world’s fastest growing commercial real estate firm.Headquartered in Toronto, Canada, Avison Young is a collaborative, global firm owned and operated by its principals. Founded in 1978, the company comprises 2,600 real estate professionals in 84 offices, providing value-added, client-centric investment sales, leasing, advisory, management, financing and mortgage placement services to owners and occupiers of office, retail, industrial, multi-family and hospitality properties.
