A well-known Buckhead church has been sold to make way for hotels and offices.

Atlanta-based Ackerman & Co. purchased the Second Church of Christ, Scientist on Peachtree Road, just next door to the well-known Maggiano’s restaurant. Ackerman paid $3.25 million for both the more than 15,000-square-foot church and the .64 acres underneath it.

Duncan Gibbs and Todd Poer with The Staubach Co. brokered the sale.

While the church -- at that location since 1948 -- is both notable in and of itself, the buy is just one more piece of a larger holding by Ackerman in Buckhead. The developer now owns a total of 13 acres bounded by Peachtree Road, Stratford Road, the Buckhead Loop and Georgia 400, land that is home to such notables as Maggiano’s Little Italy restaurant and the Post Stratford apartment complex.

Kris Miller, president of Ackerman, said, "We just love the site. We love the site and we love the location."

For now, Ackerman plans to hold its property with plans for some form of redevelopment, although it’s more than likely that both Maggiano’s and Post Stratford will remain, given the long-term ground leases for both.

But Miller said the developer is eyeing a mix of uses on the site, including office and luxury hotel. The recent news that Dallas-based Rosewood Hotels & Resorts LLC will operate a planned 52-story boutique luxury hotel and condominium at the former Art Institute of Atlanta site at the corner of Peachtree and Stratford roads (across Stratford from Ackerman’s land) only adds to Ackerman land’s value and momentum for redevelopment, Miller said.

"I think the Rosewood validates that roughly 400-yard stretch of Peachtree is the absolute ground zero of hotels," Miller said. "You’re basically have within that stretch all the premium hotel properties in Atlanta save the Four Seasons."

Rosewood’s hotel is being developed by Atlanta-based City Centre Properties, a firm with ownership ties to former Post Properties Inc. CEO John Williams.

Beau King, who heads Kim King & Associates in Midtown, said Ackerman made a smart purchase with the Christian Science church given the draw Peachtree Road in Buckhead is garnering from both developers and hotel operators.

"That’s shaping up to be main and main in Buckhead -- from Piedmont and Peachtree [roads] all the way down to The Pinnacle [at the corner of Lenox and Peachtree roads]. That’s the heart of Buckhead right there," King said. "That whole stretch there is going to be high-rise canyon."

As for the Christian Science denomination, the group is planning to pack up and leave as soon as they find a new location, said Kwadjo Boaitey, a spokesperson with the Christian Science Committee on Publication. Boaitey declined to say how many members attend the Second Church of Christ, Scientist, Atlanta, but the facility hosted “testimony meetings” both on Wednesdays and Sundays, and has a Christian Science library. There are seven Christian Science churches in the metro area including a Midtown church at 15th and Peachtree streets, a Marietta church and a Roswell church.

“That property and that church have been in a prime location since its inception,” Boaitey said. But the Christ Scientist board of directors have yet to decide where the new Buckhead church will be located.

“It’s just been one of those things we’ve been praying about,” he said, adding that it’s the church’s “goal” to stay in Buckhead.

“That structure is an amazing structure. It kind of represents Buckhead, the creative spirit,” he said.

Ackerman officials say they have not determined the fate of the actual church building in redevelopment plans. And Boaitey said he was unsure if Ackerman planned to tear it down.

“[The church] is one of those structures that really speaks to and reflects the community,” he said. “With that, I don’t want to say it’s got to stay, but I do know that the next opportunity will do that as well.”