Nashville—LifeWay has completed the sale of its 14.5-acre campus in downtown Nashville.
“Although this momentous event is cause for thanksgiving, it is also bittersweet,” Thom Rainer, president of LifeWay Christian Resources, wrote in an email to the Southern Baptist entity’s trustees and employees Nov. 24 after the sale was announced around 5 p.m.
“LifeWay has served the bride of Christ from this property for more than 100 years,” Rainer wrote. “Those of us who serve today continue an unbroken line of tens of thousands of employees who have stewarded the responsibility to produce trustworthy Christian resources for the church. And, we will continue to do so into the future, but from a new location.”
The sale was announced in a joint news release from LifeWay and Southwest Value Partners, a private real estate investment firm based in San Diego.
The news release noted that LifeWay “will continue to occupy a portion of the campus over the near term until it determines the permanent location of its corporate headquarters.”
A sale price of $125 million cash was stated by an attorney for Southwest Value Partners to The Tennessean daily newspaper, but the joint news release did not disclose a purchase price.
Rainer, in the news release, stated, “I am confident Southwest Value Partners will continue to steward this campus in a way that is most beneficial to downtown Nashville and those who live, work and visit here.
“LifeWay hopes to keep our headquarters in downtown Nashville, so I am excited about having Southwest Value Partners not only as stewards of our current campus, but as neighbors moving forward,” he said. (BP)
Art Toalston