Developer Liam Horne said he was looking at building 13 town houses of one or two bedrooms at the site in North Rd, all single-storey.
He was targeting the likes of professional couples, older people and single people.
The building would be done in two stages with completion set for the end of the year.
Construction of four units for the first stage would start next week, and was expeced to take five to six months.
About the middle of the year, a second stage would begin and it was expected all the houses would be completed by the end of the year.
The price of the units would be between $400,000-$500,000 for both single and double-bedroom houses, he said, which he was confident would attract plenty of interest.
All the infrastructure was there to be used in the new development.
It was sad to see the church go but it needed earthquake strengthening, he said, and many of the clubs which had used the church had moved to the suburb’s bowling club.
There was a market for town houses and it was growing. He had built some in Mosgiel which had sold well and they were popular with older people.
‘‘We had lost a lot of the investors but they’re starting to come back, to be fair, now that money’s a bit cheaper. First time buyers as well — getting quite a few of them because they’re — you know, they’re new. They’re pretty well priced.’’
Single-storey units were attractive to many buyers, he said, and there was a shortage of these in the centre city and North East Valley.
