SILVER SPRING, Md. — A bell tower and three front doors are all that remain of the red brick First Baptist Church of Silver Spring.

The building is being demolished  to make way for new construction, in an unusual partnership between church and commercial developers, backed by Montgomery County government leaders.

“We prayed and we prayed with tears and it seemed as if you were the angels sent to us,” Pastor Duncan MacIntosh told developers gathered for a ceremonial groundbreaking.

The old church is being torn down to make way for a 231,000-square-foot mixed-used development named “Central.”

The aging, cash-strapped church needed an estimated $3 million in repairs to meet county safety codes, but MacIntosh knew the real estate the church sat on was worth a fortune.

“This was the dream to be able to go into a mixed used development that would give a kind of a micro-community to this setting,” MacIntosh said.

Being built on the site where the church and its parking lots stood are 243 apartments, ground floor retail space, a gym and a daycare center.

The developers, Grosvenor, will build a new church building on adjacent property.

MacIntosh said there will be space in the project for two other churches currently renting space from First Baptist — a Haitian church and a Spanish-language church.

In his remarks at the ceremony, Montgomery County Executive Ike Leggett praised the project’s vision.

It’s “a multi-religious center here that reflects the great diversity we see in Silver Spring that is part of the mosaic of Montgomery County,” Leggett said.