Church on Little River Turnpike for sale

Interested in having your own church? The former home of the Fairfax Seventh-day Adventist Church at 8950 Little River Turnpike, Fairfax, is for sale.

The asking price is $2 million, which includes a 4,000-square foot church building on a lot that’s just under two acres. The church, built in 1959, has a sanctuary that holds 108, plus offices, classrooms, kitchen, multipurpose room, a brand-new state-of-the art projector system, and a heated baptismal pool.

The property is zoned R-1, allowing one residential building per acre but it has a permit allowing a religious institution.

The realtor, Heidi Swenson, has already gotten two offers. “It’s unbelievable how many congregations are looking for space,” she says. Two other congregations are leasing the building  from the church’s owner, the Potomac Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists, but neither one is interesting in buying it.

The Potomac Conference, based in Staunton, Va., is selling the building because the Fairfax Seventh-Day Adventist Church has merged with the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church to form a consolidated Solid Rock Seventh-day Adventist Church based in Arlington.

“The membership is exploding in growth and that was the reason for the merger,” says Solid Rock pastor Vince “Vinnie” MacIsaac. “While growth is up, the high cost of property and expansion is also up and that made it a more viable option to join with the Arlington Seventh-day Adventist Church, which has a much more substantial building for our combined needs.”

Solid Rock has about 180 members, and MacIsaac expects it to continue to grow.  Long-term plans call for the church to seek a larger building. “We have not left Fairfax or Annandale,” he says, “as we still see it as a community area we serve.”