Raleigh Charter pays $6.3 million for Methodist building on Glenwood Ave.

Raleigh Charter High School, one of the nation's top-ranked public high schools, has found a new home.

The Raleigh Charter High School Foundation has paid $6.375 million for the United Methodist Office Building at 1307 Glenwood Avenue, according to Wake County property records.

Earlier this year Raleigh Charter said it had narrowed its search to three sites, including the Methodist building. The school currently leases about 35,000 square feet just north of downtown in the historic Pilot Mill buildings.

That location, hemmed in on two sides by railroad tracks and Capital Boulevard, offers the school limited parking.

Raleigh Charter Principal Tom Humble said today the school expects to move to its new location in August after completing renovations of the building.

The two-story Methodist building includes 42,000 square feet. Before closing on the property, Raleigh Charter conducted a traffic impact study to make sure the city was okay with a school operating in that location.

Raleigh Charter bought the building from a partnership that included the Methodist Home for Children and Grubb Ventures, a Raleigh firm that focuses primarily on infill projects inside the Beltline.

The partnership paid $3.5 million for the property in August 2008.

Grubb's group bought the building from the N.C. Conference of the Methodist Church, which until last month leased 35,000 of the building's 42,000 square feet. The conference has moved to a building in Garner that it built using the proceeds from its sale to Grubb.

Raleigh Charter, which has about 530 students, does not plan to increase its enrollment as part of its move.

U.S. News & World Report ranked the school, which takes students by lottery, as one of the top 100 high schools in the country.

In order to finance its purchase, Raleigh Charter has undertaken its most ambitious fundraising campaign since the school opened in 1998.