University of Miami buys United Methodist church near its Coral Gables campus

1.64-acre site is west of the university

Aerial view of 6500 Red Road and Sebastian the Ibis (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)
Aerial view of 6500 Red Road and Sebastian the Ibis (Credit: Wikimedia Commons)

The University of Miami is going off campus.

Property records show the private university paid $8.84 million for the 1.64-acre United Methodist Church site at 6500 Red Road, about two blocks west of the Alex Rodriguez Park at Mark Light Field.

The Board of Trustees of the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church Inc. sold the property, which includes the two-story, 36,000-square-foot church. Previous sales information is not available online.

A spokesperson for the university said it is currently “evaluating its options” for the property. United Methodist could not immediately be reached for comment.

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UM is in the midst of building a major residential complex on campus. The 23-building, 1,100-bed project, designed by Miami-based Arquitectonica, is expected to open by the fall of 2019. It’s being built on about 9 acres in the middle of the campus next to Lake Osceola, and will mark the first new dormitory since UM opened University Village in 2006.

The church is just south of University Village, a complex of student apartments.

Earlier this year, the university paid $8.2 million for an office building near one of its clinics at 1300 East Newport Center Drive in Deerfield Beach.