Rexburg’s old seminary building is up for sale
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REXBURG — The Rexburg Urban Renewal Agency (URA) has placed the old seminary building, located at 30 North 1st West, on the open market for a starting bid of $625,000.
Due to the demand for upcoming projects and a short timeline, the URA has opened the property where the old seminary building is located for purchase until Sept 14.
Scott Miller, the agency administrator for URA, said in an interview, “We heard there were people who are interested in saving that building. We really wanted to see what ideas people had out there.”
The starting bid reflects the original price paid for the property when the URA bought it back in 2025, as well as the cost of creating parking and other necessities for any purpose the buyer may intend for the property.
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“We’ve really put it out there to see if there’s somebody that’s willing to come buy that property and potentially rehab the building,” Miller said.
The time-worn structure is called the “Old Seminary Building” because of its original and long-term function as a site for scripture study classes for middle- to high-school students who were members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints at the time of its dedication in 1938.
For a portion of the Rexburg community, this building holds memories, embodies religious values, or is significant for its distinctive Spanish Colonial Revival architecture. For some, this makes it an important landmark in Rexburg’s history.
For those reasons, when the building was rumored to be slated for demolition, it reignited discussions about saving the building throughout the city of Rexburg. Various societies and groups, such as the Rexburg Historical Preservation Commission, have expressed a desire to see the building renewed rather than demolished or replaced.
“I spoke with other people in the community, ‘Is this worth doing?’ The answer was yes. It is worth putting it out there,” Miller said.
Although there has not been any news yet about buyers, Miller states that this is common for a request-for-proposal bid. All requests are also sealed until after the established date. Until then, it will not be known whether someone has purchased the property.
“We don’t look at those (the requests) until we can look at them all together,” Miller said.
For more information or to submit a request for proposal to the URA before Sept 14, the project can be found here and by navigating to the drop-down menu and selecting “Old Seminary Building at 30 N 1st W RFP”.