OLD TOWN TRIANGLE — The 140-year-old Hermon Baptist Church is on the market and being priced to move at $3.5 million.
The church, at 1754 N. Clark St., had its asking price dropped last week to $3.5 million. It was listed at $4.1 million last summer, but failed to sell after an earlier deal to develop a condominium on the site fell through over neighborhood resistance.
As a consequence, the new Redfin listing said the property "is being sold as is and seller will not accept offers that have a zoning contingency." It also said "cash buyers with a quick closing and hard earnest money will move to the head of the line."
"We just changed the price on it," said Scott Siegel, of Jennings Realty, which is handling the sale for the church. "We were looking to get some more attention at this point.
"We wanted to kind of refresh things and get some more eyeballs on it," Siegel added.
"We've been very clear with potential buyers about the obstacles they might face on a zoning change," Siegel said. "We always thought a renovated single-family home on that site would be awesome." That use would beallowed under the current zoning.
A developer could buy the property and make another attempt at a zoning change, he added, but the church is not interested in waiting for that process to play out before closing on the sale.
Hermon Baptist was formed in the late 1800s by African-American domestic workers in the Gold Coast who sought a nearby church so they wouldn't have to make the Sunday trek to the South Side.
The church's pastor, the Rev. Keith Edwards. said last year there was "no urgency" in the sale, and that the church needed to move to a place with additional parking in order to grow.
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