Turner Dairy buys church for office space in Penn Hills

Turner Dairy Farms in Penn Hills plans to buy a church near the business to provide office space to its customer service employees.

According to Turner Dairy Farms President Chuck Turner Jr., Three Rivers Assembly of God on Jefferson Road stopped services in June.

“That's the sad part of the equation,” Turner said. “We're sorry about them closing but we're happy to have office space close to us and in Penn Hills. It's been a great place to do business.”

Turner said his company made an offer to buy the church, but he declined to disclose details of the deal. He said the church never put the building at 1030 Jefferson Road up for sale.

Attempts to reach the church were unsuccessful. County real estate records show Joy Full Gospel Fellowship bought the building 1992 for $141,500.

Turner said he is waiting on Penn Hills to approve a zoning variance to allow for office use in the building. The municipality's zoning hearing board will consider the request at its Oct. 25 meeting.

“We've just been growing,” Turner said. “It's part of the progression, and we haven't added office space for decades.”

Turner Dairy announced in June its acquisition of Pittsburgh's last remaining dairy, Colteryahn Dairy. The new company will be dubbed Pittsburgh Special-T Dairy and Carl Colteryahn III will remain president of the Carrick dairy.

Turner said employees who are working out of the company's building on Jefferson Road will be moved into the church. He said he was unsure how many employees will be moved and the company does not have plans to hire additional employees.

Dillon Carr is a Tribune-Review staff writer. Reach him at 412-871-2325, dcarr@tribweb.com or via Twitter @dillonswriting.