Former Catholic Church Sells To Local Buyer

One of Saint John’s iconic churches will serve a new purpose after being sold.

Realtor Jason Stephen sold the former St. John the Baptist parish on Broad Street to a local buyer.

He was hired by the local diocese to sell the property and there was interest immediately from different buyers including those in faith communities and developers.

Stephen called it an interesting and unique proposal.

“The church was over 5000 square feet and the rectory was over 4500 square feet. It also had more than three quarters of an acre of property,” Stephen said.

Stephen previously sold the former Holy Trinity parish on Rockland Road which helped with the complexity of this sale.

Details on the sale including the buyer and the price it sold for won’t be revealed until it closes on July 16th.

Stephen said the local housing market is in very short supply with a lot of increased demand.

“People are coming for a way of life and an affordable property. The influx from outside New Brunswick is like I’ve never seen it. All that compiled with local people who want to purchase homes and the fact that we are in historic lows in terms of inventory can sometime puts pressure on the prices and it also raises the level of intensity on the number of offers that can come on a property,” Stephen said.

Stephen said there is no question, we are in a seller’s market right now and he tells people if they price [their homes] within reason they will be very successful for the market we are in.

St. John the Baptist parish closed in 2018 as part of a major restructuring by the Diocese of Saint John which saw nine church close in the region including Holy Trinity and St. Peter’s in Saint John.