LifeWay Christian Resources has chosen not to purchase a 1.5-acre city-owned site in downtown Nashville for its new headquarters, LifeWay President Thom Rainer said in a letter to employees today. However, Rainer said the Southern Baptist entity does intend to complete the sale of its current 14.5-acre campus, also in downtown Nashville.

LifeWay's bid for the 1.5-acre property was accepted in July for $12.7 million with a $4.9 million tax incentive, lowering the overall cost to less than $8 million, according to a Baptist Press report. The site is owned by Nashville's Metro Development and Housing Agency and is situated across the Cumberland River from Nissan Stadium, home of the NFL's Tennessee Titans.

In Rainer's letter to LifeWay employees, he said: "The property is a great downtown location and would be an exciting place for our new building. But we have concluded it's not the best location for LifeWay. ... We simply have found other potential downtown properties that are a better fit for LifeWay's future. We still anticipate closing on the sale of our property to [the development group] Uptown Nashville in the next few days. And we will let you know as soon as we can about where we intend to build LifeWay's new headquarters."

LifeWay's current site encompasses more than 1 million square feet of office, warehouse and parking space. About 1,100 employees work in the downtown offices, but only use about one third of the workspace.

Although LifeWay has not announced a sale price, The Tennessean newspaper stated that Uptown Nashville will pay "around $125 million" for the property.

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