The closing July 24 on the purchase of a church property represents a rare opportunity for its buyer.

For a purchase price of $3.6 million, New Hanover County Schools bought an 80-acre site at 5301 Sidbury Road, which includes a more than 50,000-square-foot building that will be vacated by The Rock Church of Wilmington. Steve Hall and Charlie Rivenbark of commercial brokerage firm Maus, Warwick, Matthews and Company represented the church during the sale.

“Right now, I don’t think you could build that property for that price,” said Hall.

When The Rock put a large facility on the site, it was built with a kitchen, classrooms and auditorium because at one time the church envisioned the possibility of starting a Christian school, he said.

The building and property, with some renovation and the addition of mobile units, will house elementary school students temporarily displaced by construction and improvement projects included in the $160 million bond referendum voters will consider in November, said Bill Hance, the schools’ assistant superintendent for operations.

Whether the bond is approved or not, the schools can use the location to alleviate overcrowding and relocate buses now parked at Laney High School and Trask Middle School.

“A property like this doesn’t come along often,” Hance said. “We’re lucky that we had the opportunity to purchase a site like that. It’s complementary to everything that’s occurring with the bond referendum, and it’s complementary to long-range plans.”

Keeping 80 buses at the two schools in northern New Hanover County has led to congestion.

“The Laney and Trask campuses were never designed to accommodate that many buses. We’ve done it out of necessity because of space, but if the bond passes, that space would be used for additions to Laney,” Hance said.

In the future, the site has the potential to hold a small service bay for the buses and a new middle school, depending on how growth continues, Hance said.

The latest appraisal valued the property at a little more than $4 million.

The Rock, a non-denominational church, will move its offices to Burnt Mill Business Park in October, when its services will start being held at Mayfaire Regal Stadium 16 cinemas, Hall said.

“They want to be closer to the heart of Wilmington, and this provides them with the opportunity to do so,” Hall said.