THE former Prime7 television studios on Union Road will be converted into a church, marking the end of an era for the station.
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The site was sold to the Generation Life Church about three weeks ago for about $500,000, after a year on the market.
The building will retain its distinctive shade of blue paint but will undergo about $20,000 in renovations to convert it into a church under plans before Albury Council.
Services will be held at 10.15am each Sunday and family support, pastoral care and counselling services will also be conducted.
There are no plans for demolition at the 8000-square-metre site, which had attracted interest from developers.
The Generation Life Church is based in North Street at present. Stanley and Martin sales director Scott Wilkie said developers had been keen to put units on the site.
“The building is going to stay there with slight modifications,” he said.
“It will be good to keep it rather than going down the path of having lots of units.
“It’s a result we’re happy with. A lot of people had a lot of memories of going in there as children.
“It’s got a lot of history.”
Broadcasts began at the site as AMV4 on September 7, 1964 and ended with the final news bulletin on March 18, 2011.
A range of programs had been produced and broadcast from the building.
Journalists currently send their stories to Canberra to be broadcast.
“Some people in the area still remember going in there on Saturday mornings for kids’ TV shows,” Mr Wilkie said.
“We had a lot of interest from local syndicates and from metropolitan areas.
“Being a large development, no-one was able to come to the table as quickly as the church were.”
The site continued to be used by Prime7 to produce stories after live broadcasting finished, before staff relocated to Dean Street 12 months ago.
There were no bids when the Union Road site failed to sell at auction last July.
The site is zoned general residential which means it could be redeveloped.
A council development application notes there will be five volunteer staff and a maximum of 45 people on site at any one time.
“There are not any places for public worship in the immediate local area,” the development application states. “This impact will only be positive.”
