An interesting article in the AP discusses the difficulties in selling churches after the congregation declines or the demographics of an area change. The balance of getting the right price and having the buyer use the building for purposes that the church deems acceptable are a tough balance. In a younger day I went to the Limelight in Manhattan, a night club that was housed in an old church. Even in those days it was not the most comforting place to have a cocktail.

Now churches are fighting the battle of how to sell and who to sell to.

Population shifts, declining Mass attendance and a shortage of priests in many areas have forced Roman Catholic leaders to consolidate parishes and sell off churches.
But selling a house of worship is no easy task. Pastors must placate parishioners upset by the sale and find a buyer who will respect the building’s history.
On the market
Parishioners in Pittsburgh were riled in 1996 when the former St. John the Baptist Church became The Church Brew Works, a restaurant that brews beer near where an altar once stood.
“The issue wasn’t the beer,” said Ronald P. Lengwin, spokesman for the Catholic Diocese of Pittsburgh. “The issue was that we were told by the parish all sacred items had been removed before the sale. We found out later they had not been removed.”
Two of 216 Catholic churches in the Diocese of Milwaukee are on the market. Eight have been sold since 2000. Three of 134 Catholic churches in the Diocese of Madison are for sale after parishes merged, according to Brent King, spokesman for the Madison diocese.
Churches nationwide are undergoing similar changes. The Catholic Archdiocese of Boston put 60 churches up for sale in 2004, many of which were converted into condominiums. The North Indiana Conference of the United Methodist Church in Marion, Ind., has sold 30 churches in the past 14 years.
Most churches are sold to other denominations with growing membership. But in some cases, religious leaders have been forced to seek buyers in the commercial market. St. Stephen Catholic Church in Milwaukee, built in 1847, sits about a mile from the Milwaukee airport and faces an adult lounge and a parking lot.  via the Herald News