The Church of the Highlands, Alabama's largest church, has bought the Cahaba Grand Conference Center on U.S. 280, where it began holding services as its Grandview branch campus on March 6, Pastor Chris Hodges said.

Hodges made the announcement during his Sunday sermon on May 1, broadcast live to 14 campuses from the main campus on Grants Mill Road just off Interstate 459 in suburban Birmingham.

"This past week, we wrote a check and we own that conference center," Hodges said.

Hodges said the church acquired the property for a quarter of what it's worth, although he did not announce a selling price.

Pat Henry, president of the Commercial division of Daniel Corporation, which owned the conference center, said he couldn't comment on the sale.

"We are really blown away by the impact the Church of the Highlands has made in this community and throughout the state," Henry said. "It really is phenomenal."

The conference center was originally built as the Richard M. Scrushy Conference Center as part of the HealthSouth headquarters campus, now called the Grandview Plaza, which was bought by the Daniel Corporation in 2008.

Church of the Highlands holds services at Grandview at 9:30 a.m. and 11:30 a.m. on Sundays at the Cahaba Grand Conference Center. The official grand opening of the Grandview campus was held on Easter Sunday, March 27.

Grandview was the 14th campus for the Church of the Highlands, which has its main campus in Irondale on Grants Mill Road.

Highlands opened its 13th campus in Gadsden on Feb. 7. That date also marked the 15th anniversary of the congregation's founding. It began meeting in 2001 in the fine arts auditorium at Mountain Brook High School.

With sermons by Hodges beamed via internet to all the branch locations, the church has attendance of more than 40,000 per week, making it one of the largest churches in America.