SteppingStone Theatre for Youth wants to sell the massive former church with the tall white pillars near Summit Avenue and Victoria Street in St. Paul where it has staged shows and run programs for youth for the past 13 years.

In an announcement Thursday, theater officials said the organization needs a building that better fits its “continued growth and development.”

“We’re moving to better deliver on the promise of our mission and to meet the needs of young artists, families and schools in our community,” Mark Ferraro-Hauck, artistic and executive director, said in a news release. “The current building has helped us grow over the last 13 years. As we look to the future, it’s clear greater flexibility is essential to accommodate our continued development.”

Last summer, the organization was short on classroom space for summer camp programs and needed to run things in five locations, said Kiersten Birondo, director of marketing and communications. “We need to be able to be flexible,” she said.

Though most people associate SteppingStone with its stage productions, “almost a third of what we do is outside this building,” Ferraro-Hauck said in a phone interview. The theater has programs in school, after school, and in libraries and community centers, he added.

In the present building, “the size of the auditorium is the only piece of the puzzle that fits for us,” Ferraro-Hauck said.

SteppingStone struggled some financially in the past several years, but recent budget-tightening moves are working, Ferraro-Hauck said. Last year, there was just a “tiny” operating loss, he said.

The theater works to make its youth programs accessible, according to Ferraro-Hauck. Last year, SteppingStone was able to provide $25,000 in tuition waivers and fee reductions for its summer camps. Programs and performances reach about 40,000 kids each year.

Before moving into the renovated Greek Revival church in the Summit-University neighborhood, SteppingStone was at the Landmark Center in downtown St. Paul.

The church was constructed in 1908 to house the First Methodist Church and eventually served a Ukrainian congregation and then Grace Community Church of Christ.

Grace Community, faced with financial woes, wanted to sell the building to a condo developer in 2002, but the St. Paul City Council sided with preservationists.

The congregation eventually sold the building to a developer whose plans to turn it into a classical-education charter school fell through.

That’s when the SteppingStone project emerged. The $4.8 million renovation was completed in 2007.

Next onstage at SteppingStone is the theater’s holiday production, “Annie Jr.,” Nov. 22 to Dec. 22.