Next Level Church buys Celebration Church building

BUYER: Next Level Church Inc. (principals: Matt Keller, John Goodnight, Todd Fitzgerald and Vanessa Martin), Fort Myers

SELLER: Love and Grace Family Church Inc.

PROPERTY: 12400 Plantation Road, Fort Myers

PRICE: $1.59 million

PREVIOUS PRICE: $970,000, April 1999

LAW FIRM ON DEED: Knott Consoer Ebelini Hart & Swett PA, Fort Myers

PLANS, DESCRIPTION: Fort Myers-based Next Level Church purchased the 24,730-square-foot Celebration Church building for $1.59 million.

The price equated to $64 per square foot.

Next Level Church currently leases office space on Techster Boulevard and uses South Fort Myers High School for its Sunday services. It plans to renovate the Plantation Road building and expand it by 5,000 to 6,000 square feet.

Fort Myers-based J.L. Wallace Inc. is the project's lead contractor. Next Level Church hopes to be in the facility by Easter.

Next Level Church Executive Pastor Scott Drummond says the church has operated on a mobile basis for more than eight years. “It's time for us to own our own place,” says Drummond. “It's on the same road as the high school, just a mile or so away.”

Stan Stouder of CB Richard Ellis, Fort Myers/Naples represented the seller and Mark Alexander, also of CB Richard Ellis, Fort Myers/Naples represented the buyer.

Next Level Church mortgaged the property to SunTrust Bank for $1.11 million.