WESTBROOK – A former church building that was supposed to be home to a new cultural center in Westbrook’s downtown is now under contract.

Wilfred Audet, the listing broker for Greater Portland Realty, which is handling the sale for Westbrook Housing, confirmed Tuesday that the property is under contract. Audet declined to name the buyer of the property or the selling price, referring those questions to Westbrook Housing. Sue Eldridge, Westbrook Housing’s interim executive director, did not return calls seeking comment for this story prior to the American Journal’s deadline.

Westbrook Housing bought the building for $1 in July 2011 from the Allen Avenue Unitarian Universalist Church in Portland.

Back then, Trudy McNulty, speaking for the church, said the goal was to make sure the 19th-century building didn’t get turned into condominiums. “That’s our fear, that someone would do that and chop it up,” she said in a previous interview.

In September 2011,Westbrook Housing took over the building with the intent to turn it into a cultural center. The intent also was to make the building an activity center for senior citizens, Richard Begin ,Westbrook Housing’s senior program officer for community development said, but another opportunity addressed that need. The building known as Presumpscot Commons, which Westbrook Housing renovated into senior housing, had a gymnasium and a few other rooms that remained the property of the Westbrook Recreation Department.

Just two months after getting the Main Street church building, Begin said, the department donated the space in Presumpscot Commons to Westbrook Housing, which then became the senior activity center.

Begin said the costs for renovating the former church into a usable space began to add up. The building needs new sprinklers, he said, which were estimated at a cost of $40,000. Add to that a new roof and boiler, he said, and Westbrook Housing would have to spend $120,000, and that doesn’t include any renovations needed to make it into the under-100-seat venue Westbrook Housing wanted, which led Westbrook Housing to put the building on the market.

The former Unitarian Universalist Church on Main Street in Westbrook is under contract. Westbrook Housing is selling it.