LifeWay Christian Resources is exploring opportunities to better utilize its downtown Nashville corporate offices, which could mean the sale of some — or all — of the 14.5-acre property, Thom S. Rainer said in a letter to the organization’s staff.
LifeWay is working with a consulting firm to study the advantages and disadvantages of a possible sale, said Rainer, LifeWay’s president and CEO. About 1,100 of LifeWay’s employees work in the downtown corporate offices. The organization also oversees 186 stores and 4,300 employees in 29 states.
Acknowledging that LifeWay has been located in the Music City for more than 120 years, Rainer cited demand for property in the downtown area and fewer employees now working at its corporate offices as reasons for studying a possible sale.
In the letter, Rainer addressed changes in the publishing industry and why more of LifeWay’s employees now work outside of Nashville than at its corporate offices.
“Our needs have changed,” he said. “We no longer print and package our resources on the first floor of the operations building and then put them on a conveyor belt running under Broadway to the U.S. Post Office.
“That post office building is now an art center, our printing is done all over the country, our assembly and shipping is centered in new facilities in Lebanon, (Tenn.), and [the operations building] sits mostly empty. We have been unable to even lease the space.”
While LifeWay leases unused office space in its Frost Building along with the adjacent parking lot, Rainer said, hundreds of offices on its campus remain vacant.
LifeWay spokesman Marty King estimated nearly one third of the facility is vacant or leased, but he declined to speculate about the value of the property. The Tennessean newspaper estimated the value at “more than $80 million.”
It could take several months or longer before a recommendation is made to LifeWay’s trustees, Rainer noted.
(BP)
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