Thomas Gounley

TGOUNLEY@NEWS-LEADER.COM

Correction: This story has been updated to correct the theater's name in the first sentence of this post.

The Premiere Palace movie theater in Springfield's Chesterfield Village appears to have a new future as a church.

Leo Crosby, executive pastor with Life360 Church, told the News-Leader Thursday afternoon that the organization is under contract to purchase the 29,000-square-foot theater at 2220 W. Chesterfield St. He said the deal is in the due diligence phase and that Life360 hopes to close in the next 60 days.

"From where we are as a church, and what we need, it'll be perfect," Crosby said.

The theater, which sits on 3.2 acres, was listed for sale at $2.6 million. Crosby declined to comment on the contract terms.

Premiere Palace was known until August as Palace Theatre. The name change was made as the theater decided to screen new releases. Prior to that, the facility showed films that had ceased being shown in most theaters but had not yet been released on DVD.

The theater property is owned by Dearborn Development. Warren Theatres, which operates Premiere Palace and seven other theaters in the region, has been leasing the space.

Warren Theatres Vice President of Operations Dan Gray told the Springfield Business Journal Thursday afternoon that he was unsure if the company would continue to maintain a theater in Springfield.

Life360 has seven Springfield-area campuses and is affiliated with the Assemblies of God. Crosby said the theater would replace the Life360's current Park Crest Campus, which is located nearby at 3581 S. Kansas Ave.

In November, Crosby said, Life360 put a portion of land behind its Park Crest facility up for sale. The organization was subsequently approached by private school New Covenant Academy, which wanted to purchase the entire campus. That deal is also now under contract.

LIfe360 had been in the process of renovating the Park Crest facility and decided that it could renovate the Premiere Palace property for less money, Crosby said. Renovations will include completely gutting the property and adding on it, he said, increasing the site's footprint to 34,000 square feet.

New Covenant, which operates at 3304 S. Cox Ave., said on its Facebook page Thursday that it will turn the Life360 property — about 39,000 square feet on 10 acres — into a campus for grades 5 through 8.

Both Life360 and New Covenant want to move into their new spaces by fall 2018, Crosby said.