Downtown-based First Baptist Church sold its Ortega satellite campus property Dec. 12 to Fruit Cove Baptist Church.
Fruit Cove Baptist Church paid $1.025 million for 1.96 acres at 4865 Roosevelt Blvd. and 2826 Iroquois Ave. The property consists of 20,002 square feet of congregation space, including a sanctuary and meeting space. A 1,252-square-foot single-family home sits at 2826 Iroquois Ave.
Fruit Cove Pastor Tim Maynard said he would plant a church there called Refuge. Fruit Cove Baptist Church will sponsor it for two years and then let it operate independently.
Maynard said he hopes to have it up and running by Easter. The leadership of the church will be “a little more youthful,” he said.
He added the property was in good shape and wouldn’t need much work before opening next year. He said First Baptist ended services there in August.
First Baptist Church announced in September that it wanted to market more than 11 acres of its 13.7-acre Downtown property along with the satellite campus.
Purchasing the property is part of a larger strategy for Fruit Cove Baptist Church to plant 20 new churches by 2020. Maynard said he wasn’t specifically planning on an Ortega location, but the opportunity presented itself.
“When we heard they were putting it on the market, I thought well let’s see what they want for it,” Maynard said. “So we checked into it and before we knew it we were negotiating the price and ended up agreeing on some things.”
Fruit Cove’s main campus is at 501 Florida 13 in Fruit Cove in St. Johns County. It has 4,100 members.
Maynard said Fruit Cove has helped to plant churches in Florida, New York, New Jersey and Canada. In Jacksonville, Fruit Cove helped to start The District Church, which holds services at Robert E. Lee High School in Riverside.
Maynard said he hopes to reach those in the Ortega area, as well as neighborhoods west of there and those who attended First Baptist Church’s Ortega campus.
“There are people over there in Ortega who aren’t being reached yet, even with the churches that are there,” Maynard said. “So we’re trying to focus on getting to know that community and serving them the best we can.”