After 40 years in an A-frame building off Edison Street, a Lutheran church soon will move to the Southridge area of Kennewick.

Pastor Tim Wilkens, 34, said King of Kings Lutheran Church has outgrown its current space and hopes to be in the new building by late next year.

The church has been at 5209 W. Fifth Ave. since the mid-70s, but sold the building last year and is now renting the same space back from its current owners, the Apostolic Assembly of the Faith in Christ Jesus.

The two churches hold services at separate times so both congregations are able to share the same angled roof.

Members of Apostolic Assembly use the building Friday evenings and Sunday afternoons, which allows King of Kings to hold worship times on Sunday mornings and evenings.

Wilkens has been pastor for three years and said the idea of expansion pre-dates his arrival, resulting in the purchase of the new property at 3315 S. Sherman St., just west of Southridge High School, about five years ago.

Church members had an interest in moving to a part of the city that forecast future growth from new neighborhoods and new families. The five acres bought on Sherman were not on the market at the time, but the congregation knew this was the ideal location and pursued the sale.

A groundbreaking ceremony was held in mid-June and construction started a couple of weeks later. The church has a 520-day contract for the build and expects it could run through fall 2019. This would push back plans to open a preschool at the new location, making it available the following school year instead.

King of Kings once operated a K-8 school for about a decade in the 80s and 90s before its closure. The church intends to offer child care before and after school and provide preschool instruction for up to 40 students at a time.

In Southridge, King of Kings will nearly double its overall footprint, as the new location will be 11,800 square feet. The existing church off Edison Street is about half that size, split between the church building and an adjacent house that had been used over the years for the pastor’s home and meeting space. That 3,000- square-foot home was short-platted and sold separately from the church building to be a private home separate from future church operations. The Sherman Street church will have a sanctuary to accommodate about 280 worshippers, as well as an activity hall, kitchen, preschool classrooms, offices and conference room.

The cost of construction will run about $3 million, with design and furnishings pushing the total to $3.5 million to $3.7 million.

King of Kings is receiving a loan from the church body’s lender called the “church extension fund.” It will cover 90 percent of the project costs, plus a grant of $300,000 from the lender.

The 270-member congregation launched a capital campaign to cover the purchase of the land five years ago, and raised an additional $300,000 in the past 18 months to work toward paying back the loan.

The design and engineer work was completed by Meier Architecture Engineering, with contract work by Booth and Sons Construction, as well as subcontracting from Campbell & Co.

King of Kings Lutheran Church will continue to hold services at 10 a.m. and 6 p.m. Sundays at 5209 W. Fifth Ave. in Kennewick until its new church opens.