Transformation Church buys unused Spirit Bank Event Center for $10.5 million

The Spirit Bank Event Center was built to be the heart of a small shopping center, feeding nearby businesses with customers.

For the past five years that hasn't been happening.

"It used to be concerts, the 66ers played there. There used to be a crowd there at one point in time. Now, it's not there anymore," said Taylor Hutchinson, who works at Savastano's Pizza.

Despite the lack of use, the building is in pretty good shape.

Pastor Michael Todd saw a diamond in the not-so-rough.

"Now we are in a place that can facilitate the level of ministry and the type of people and families that we reach every Sunday," said Pastor Todd.

Pastor Todd says he dreamed of moving Transformation Church to the event center, since their attendance numbers were skyrocketing.

"Last year we went from one service to five services in one year. I was panicking, what are we gonna do. It was hard to get in and out, we had to turn over, I had to preach a whole bunch and lost ten pounds every Sunday. We knew we had to believe for more, but God has exceeded our expectations," said Pastor Todd.

The center cost the church $10.5 million, one fifth of what it cost to build the space eleven years ago.

Across the street at Savastano's Pizza, they are thrilled with their new neighbors.

"It's nice because I feel like with that type of crowd, it will be a very genuine crowd, nice people coming in ready to eat some good food, we we're really excited about the opportunity for more business for sure," said Morgan Shoemake with Savastano's.

The church will also be a broadcast center for Transformation's Youtube audience of almost 700,000.

"We want to make this a place where we are able to love on the people that are here and then send it out to the world during the week," said Pastor Todd. "We don't want church to stop on Sunday, we want people to have something to be able to find hope in all throughout the week."