“So with market prices being the way they are, we felt now was probably the best time to go ahead and close the deal. The leaseback is really a very reasonable rate for us,” Coleman said.

Terms of the sale finalized Friday call for the VCU Health System to lease the building back to the museum for two years while new museum space is constructed.

VCU Health System officials said the 31,000 square-foot museum building which sits on about 0.6 acres is being considered for use as an educational and training space for employees.

“We are pleased to have reached an agreement that is mutually beneficial to the American Civil War Museum and the VCU Health System,” Deborah Davis, CEO of VCU Health System Hospitals and Clinics and vice president for clinical affairs at VCU, said in a statement.

The new 28,500-square-foot American Civil War Museum building at Historic Tredegar is expected to open in 2018, Coleman said.

Coleman said the White House of the Confederacy is undergoing rehab work in advance of a year-long commemoration scheduled to kick off in March 2018.

“We are getting ready for the bicentennial of that building,” Coleman said.