Jim Levy talked on and off about purchasing the First Church of Christ, Scientist building at 3750 Grand Ave. in Des Moines for nearly 10 years, envisioning an extension of Newbury Development Co.’s senior living facilities across the street.

Now his son Frank Levy, the company’s new president, is pressing forward with his own aspirations for the historic property.

“He cared very strongly about senior housing,” as well as “beautiful architecture and historic preservation,” Frank said of his dad, who passed away last March, adding that many people are unaware of the role his father played in the early renovation of the Court Avenue district.

“Our top priority is a place to build more units that would tie into our existing campus,” Frank said, adding that Newbury’s primary interest would be in the bare ground on the east portion of the site, on which it would construct a 30- to 60-unit independent-living facility for seniors, similar to the company’s Grand Suites Apartments at 3721 Grand Ave. Think of it as “an upscale apartment, architecturally in keeping with the main building,” he said.

Newbury also owns and manages 3801 Grand Ave., a 60-unit assisted living facility, built in 1994. Ten of those units are in the process of being converted into a memory-care module, which will serve people with dementia-specific needs, such as Alzheimer’s patients, said Debbie Fisher, Newbury’s executive vice president.

Another element of Newbury’s “high-density, mixed-use master plan,” Frank said, is the construction of six family-oriented townhouses on the southeast side of the lot. He envisions a fitness center inside the church building, too, complete with a swimming pool and small café, geared toward residents of the senior center and the community at large.

That’s all contingent, however, on finding a suitable collaborator for the project.

With no use for the entire 31,550-square-foot structure, other than the gym and pool, the developer’s dream won’t be realized unless one or more partners are found, preferably an arts or performance group, to share the space and $3.1 million price tag.

To “help justify the investment in the facility (his company) would be making,” Frank said, a joint effort would be necessary to move forward.

“I’m counting on the main sanctuary being preserved by the arts group,” Frank said of conserving the integrity of the structure’s main auditorium, which seats more than 800 people.

One of his father’s concepts for the property, which involved demolishing the building, “wasn’t going to fly,” Frank said.

“Des Moines has lost way too many significant examples of architecture of the past,” said Tom Baldwin, president of Baldwin White Architects, whose office is located just a few blocks west of the church. He said he wouldn’t want to see the church, which was built in 1931, torn down.

Baldwin, who recently toured the interior of the structure and has driven past it for years, described the church as “a classic piece of architecture … sort of a modern interpretation of Gothic cathedral or a castle.”

With all of the building’s limestone, leaded-glass windows, stone floors and use of individual wings, Baldwin said it almost has the “look of a European village.”

And though the large arched doorways and buttresses are typical of church buildings, he added, a spare amount of “religious identifications,” compared with Protestant and Catholic churches, would make the property easier to convert into a “civic-use venue.”

“I think if it’s carefully done, there’s a large enough piece of property and major trees on the property that any new structure could blend in on the lot without obscuring the church itself.”

At least 20 parties have looked at the facility since it was put on the market in December, said Scott Berry, a broker with Grubb & Ellis/Mid America Commercial, adding that “there is an offer on the table, but it has not been answered.”

“It’s difficult to imagine that someone is going to have both the capital and the use for this building without a partnership with somebody that can do something else with it,” Berry said, adding that the goal is to work “with other potential buyers to create a synergistic and economically feasible plan.”

“It’s going to take some vision,” he said.