Church Land Sold in Loudoun County: 4.41 Acres in Lansdowne at Full List Price

By Joe Serafin, Principal Broker, Serafin Real Estate | Published August 27, 2026

The 4.41 acre corner parcel at Riverside Parkway and Coton Manor Drive, Lansdowne, Virginia.

Serafin Real Estate sold 4.41 acres of church land in Lansdowne, Virginia for $3,500,000. That was the full asking price. The site went under contract in under 60 days. A zoning overlay limited the parcel to religious use only, so this parcel of church land reached a far smaller buyer pool than its zoning suggested. Serafin Real Estate exclusively represented the seller.

Property Type	Raw land, religious facility development site
Location	Riverside Pkwy & Coton Manor Dr, Lansdowne, VA 20176
County	Loudoun County, Virginia
Lot Size	4.41 acres, corner parcel
Zoning	PDH-3, subject to Lansdowne overlay
Permitted Use	Religious facility
Transaction Type	Land sale, development site
SRE Role	Exclusive seller representation
Sale Price	$3,500,000, full list price
Price Per Acre	$793,651
Time to Contract	Under 60 days from launch
Closed	August 2026

The Challenge: Why This Church Land Reached So Few Buyers

Raw land is the slowest product type in commercial real estate. There is no income to underwrite and no building to tour. Sites like this one often sit for a year or longer while buyers work through feasibility. Meanwhile, the seller carries the tax bill.

This parcel carried three problems on top of that:

• An overlay that erased most of the buyer pool. The base PDH-3 zoning permitted a religious facility, childcare center, community center, and lodge by right. However, the Lansdowne overlay narrowed that to religious use only.
• A buyer type that does not shop listing portals. Congregations with the capital to buy land outright and build from the ground up are a small group. They also decide by committee, which slows everything down.
• Nothing to look at. The site was wooded, undeveloped ground. A buyer standing at the corner of Riverside Parkway sees trees, not a campus.

That last point is where most church land listings stall. Asking a board to commit $3.5 million to something they cannot picture is a hard conversation. So the marketing had to answer the buildability question before anyone toured the site.

The Strategy: Show the Finished Campus, Then Go Straight to the Buyers

Marketing church land to a buyer pool we already had

Serafin Real Estate has sold and leased faith-based properties across Loudoun, Fairfax, and Prince William Counties for years. Every closing added congregations, church real estate committees, and denominational decision makers to the firm's proprietary database. So by the time this church land came to market, the buyer list already existed.

That database is organized by asset type and buyer profile rather than kept as a loose contact list. Which means a religious-use-only site gets matched against real prospects on day one. It does not wait for the market to find it.

We treated the overlay restriction as a targeting instruction, not an obstacle. If the only permitted use is religious, then the marketing budget belongs where the religious buyers are.

Building the property buyers could not see

The seller's engineer had already produced a preliminary site plan. On its own, though, a site plan is a technical document. A church board cannot evaluate it emotionally. Decisions at this level get made by committees, and committees need to picture their congregation in the building.

So we built the campus before it existed:

• Commissioned high-resolution aerial photography of the actual parcel
• Used AI imaging tools and graphic design to convert the engineer's plan into photorealistic renderings
• Composited a 25,750 square foot religious facility onto the real site, with real surroundings
• Showed parking, circulation, and outdoor space at true scale
• Labeled every image as an architectural concept, not a construction document

The goal was never to promise a specific building. Instead, it was to let a buyer see what 4.41 acres at that intersection actually supports. That is the one question every land buyer is trying to answer.

Pricing to hold rather than to negotiate

Because the qualified pool was small and identifiable, the price did not need built-in negotiating room. We listed at $3,500,000, roughly $793,651 per acre. Then we marketed the corner location, the Route 7 and Belmont Ridge Road access, and the residential density already surrounding the parcel.

The Result: Full List Price in Under 60 Days

Within two months of launch, the listing reached a church looking to expand into the Lansdowne area. The buyer was well qualified and moved quickly.

• $3,500,000 contract price, the full original list price with no reduction
• Under 60 days from launch to ratified contract
• Closed August 2026
• Exclusive seller representation throughout

For church land with a use restriction that eliminated most of the market, a full-price contract inside 60 days is an outlier. The parcel did not sell because the market was hot. It sold because the right few dozen buyers saw it. Better still, what they saw was a rendering of their campus rather than a photograph of trees.

Where the Property Is Located

The parcel sits at the northeast corner of Riverside Parkway and Coton Manor Drive in Lansdowne, roughly a mile north of Route 7 and just west of Belmont Ridge Road. Belmont Ridge Middle School, Inova Loudoun Hospital, and the Lansdowne and Belmont residential communities are all within a few minutes' drive.

That surrounding density mattered to the buyer. A congregation building from the ground up needs a catchment area, and this corner sits inside one of the fastest-growing residential corridors in Loudoun County.

Why Faith-Based Property Owners in Loudoun County Work With Serafin Real Estate

Church properties, religious development sites, and special-use land do not trade like office or retail. The buyer pool is small, relationship driven, and largely invisible to standard listing channels. Therefore, selling church land well depends on knowing who the buyers are before the sign goes up.

As of 2026, Serafin Real Estate is:

• The number one commercial brokerage for total volume sold in Loudoun County
• Past $745 million in closed transactions since the firm launched in 2019
• Operating an active database of more than 80,000 contacts, organized by asset type and buyer profile
• A Best of Loudoun winner five consecutive years, 2022 through 2026

Faith-based property and development land are core verticals for the firm, alongside childcare centers, owner-user buildings, and net lease assets. You can browse other Serafin Real Estate success stories or review recent closings across Northern Virginia.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can you build a church on residentially zoned land in Loudoun County?

Often yes. Loudoun County planned development districts such as PDH-3 typically permit religious facilities by right alongside residential uses. However, a community overlay district can further restrict which of those by-right uses are actually available on a given parcel. Always verify the base zoning and any overlay through the Loudoun County Zoning Ordinance before assuming a use is permitted.

What is a zoning overlay and how does it affect a development site?

An overlay is a second layer of regulation applied on top of base zoning within a defined area. It can restrict permitted uses, height, setbacks, or design standards. On this Lansdowne parcel, the base PDH-3 zoning allowed childcare, community center, and lodge uses by right. Yet the overlay limited the site to religious use, which materially changed who could buy it.

How long does it take to sell commercial land in Northern Virginia?

Raw land generally carries the longest marketing period of any commercial property type, frequently a year or more. Buyers must complete feasibility, entitlement review, and construction budgeting before committing. Marketing that answers the buildability question up front, through site plans and photorealistic renderings, compresses that timeline. This Lansdowne site went under contract in under 60 days.

Why do land listings need renderings instead of just photographs?

Photographs of undeveloped ground show trees and grass, which tells a buyer nothing about what the parcel supports. Renderings built from a real engineer's site plan show building footprint, parking count, and scale against the actual surroundings. For committee-driven buyers such as church boards, this turns an abstract land purchase into a specific, evaluable project.

What does church land cost in Loudoun County?

Pricing depends on acreage, road frontage, utility access, and whether the site is by-right or needs a use permit. This 4.41 acre corner parcel in Lansdowne traded at $3,500,000, roughly $793,651 per acre, in August 2026. Sites needing rezoning typically trade at a discount, because the buyer absorbs entitlement risk.

Selling Land or a Faith-Based Property in Northern Virginia?

Do you own a church, a religious campus, or a development site in Northern Virginia? The buyer pool is smaller and more specific than a general commercial listing will reach. Whether you are weighing a sale now or in two years, start with a number you can trust. List your property with Serafin Real Estate, or call 703.261.4809 to talk it through first.

Sources and Verification

• Transaction data: Serafin Real Estate transaction records. Sale price, acreage, timeline, and representation role are drawn from the firm's own closing file for this property.
• Zoning: Base district and permitted uses per the Loudoun County Zoning Ordinance. District definitions available in the Loudoun County GIS zoning metadata. Overlay restrictions should be confirmed directly with Loudoun County Planning and Zoning for any specific parcel.
• Parcel: Loudoun County APN 112180736000.
• Renderings: All images labeled as renderings are architectural concepts produced from the seller's preliminary engineering site plan. They are not construction documents and do not represent an approved or built structure.
• Published: August 27, 2026. Last updated: August 27, 2026.