When Vince Rapisarda picked up The Dispatch on Feb. 2, a particular story caught his eye:
The sale of the First Baptist Church property at 202 Seventh St. N. in Columbus, which had been under contract since Nov. 1, had fallen through.
“I called Royce (Hudspeth) the same day,” Rapisarda said Thursday.
Hudspeth, of Rhett Real Estate, had been representing the church as the listing agent since March 2021. The other call Rapisarda made that day was to Scott Wagner, a developer in Tupelo who Rapisarda had partnered with in numerous developments over the years, mostly in Tupelo.
“I liked the idea because I’ve had some success in Tupelo with downtown buildings or buildings close to downtown,” Wagner said. “Vince and I have worked together for probably 10 years and it’s been successful. So, yeah, I was interested right away.”
Rapisarda moved to Columbus from Tupelo in 2017 after purchasing The Southern on Main Street, an event venue used for parties, weddings and other celebrations.
“Since I sold my home and decided to move here and purchase The Southern five years ago, we’ve been successful, and First Baptist looked like a good opportunity,” Rapisarda said.
“They made an offer, and the church went under contract about a week after that first phone call,” Hudspeth said.
On Thursday, with Hudspeth acting as agent for both the church and the new buyers, the sale was closed for an undisclosed amount. At the time of both this offer and the previous one that fell through, the listing price was $450,000. The church was first listed in 2005 for $4.9 million.
In 2017, it was listed for $1.5 million.
Because the property has operated as a tax-exempt church continuously since its founding at the site in 1832, the property had never been appraised for tax purposes. At the previous potential buyer’s request, the church buildings were appraised by Lowndes County Tax Assessor Greg Andrews at valuations of $700,000 and $800,000.
A long journey completed
For Hudspeth, who is also a deacon at First Baptist, Thursday marked the end of a long journey.
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“The property has been under contract for seven months, with about a one-week break,” Hudspeth said. “That’s a long time to have a property under contract. Clearly, it was a disappointment when the original buyer couldn’t complete the deal in February. But the bright spot in all this is the wonderful people we have found to take the property. Vince, of course, has been successful in downtown Columbus and Scott has been instrumental in some of the historic redevelopment in Tupelo. I feel like we got the best of both worlds with these two.”
In truth, the efforts to sell the property have been going on much longer than seven months.
“On September 11, 2005, the church voted to sell the property and move to a new site on Bluecutt Road,” Hudspeth. “So (Thursday) marks the end of something that started 17 years ago.”
The 81,000 square-foot property downtown includes the sanctuary, built in 1908, along with three other buildings, including a day care center, classroom building and a fellowship hall equipped with a kitchen.
‘We’re going to take our time’
As it was with the November deal that fell through, the contract completed Thursday allows the church to lease the sanctuary for up to a year as it transitions to its new campus on Bluecutt Road.
That’s fine with the new buyers.
“We’re not in a rush,” Rapisarda said. “We’ve taken calls from a lot of people who are interested in the property. We didn’t want to put it out there until the sale was finished. But I can tell you we’ve talked to local theater groups and there’s some interest from them. We’ll probably get the day care center back open, and we’ll probably do some work on the kitchen and get a cafe opened there before too long. I can see using the property for an event venue, because there’s still a demand. I know at the Southern, I have to turn down people on a weekly basis because we’re booked. We think there will probably be some office space and some residential uses, but none of that has been determined for sure.
“For the most part, we’re going to take our time,’’ he continued. “The worst thing you can do is move too fast.”
Wagner agreed.
“The market will tell us what to do,” Wagner said. “It always does.”
Hudspeth said there are probably some mixed feelings among church members, whose vote was necessary to approve the sale.
“For some members, it means we can move on and that we can look to Bluecutt as First Baptist Church, and the parcel we’ve owned for 192 years now belongs to somebody else,” Hudspeth said. “For another group of members, they’re going to feel a little saddened. It’s nostalgic for them and really, I think for the city of Columbus, too.”
Slim Smith is a columnist and feature writer for The Dispatch. His email address is [email protected].
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