Downtown Learning Center, a Roanoke day care, will move from its Second Street location to Jefferson Center before the end of the year, the center said in a note to parents Wednesday.

The center hasn't had a permanent home since July 14, when a corroded cast-iron pipe fell from the ceiling into the room for 2-year-olds during the night. Since then, it has operated across the street inside the Sunday school rooms at Greene Memorial United Methodist Church, which owns the building at 502 Second St. S.W.

"The staff here has been fantastic and made it a second home for these guys," Jimmy Chapman of Roanoke County said, referring to his son, who attends the day care. Matthew, 5, holding a pink teddy bear, said he was excited when he was asked about going to Jefferson Center.

The day care will move to its new location before Nov. 30, pending the finalization of a lease and clearance from the city, said Laura Full, Downtown Learning Center's executive director.

The day care's immediate fate hung in limbo Thursday until Full, city building commissioner Jeff Shawver and two church chairmen met at 2 p.m. to extend its occupancy permit at Greene Memorial. It was set to expire 10 hours later.

At the meeting, the city decided to allow the day care to stay at the church until Nov. 30.

The rooms in the church aren't up to code to house a day care center permanently. They lack sprinklers, a fire alarm system and appropriate exits, Shawver said. Plus, Full would prefer not to keep the center inside the church so the nonprofit can remain unaffiliated with a religion, she said.

The day care can't move to Jefferson Center right away because the child care suite and one other room there are not yet up to code for children younger than 2 and a half years old, Shawver said.

And the center can't move back to its original building because the church didn't fix the pipes or ceiling, and flooding from the street in mid-September caused additional damage, said Joe Wright, Greene Memorial board of trustees chairman.

The day care has moved its cribs and cots, confidential records, children's clothing and laundry out of the building. Other possessions that remained, such as toys, might be damaged, Full said.

The ordeal has been difficult on the day care, Full said before the meeting.

The center has asked the church for financial assistance to replace or clean damaged property, she said. The financial situation will be worked out among the church's trustees and insurance company and the center's insurance, she said.

"The money that we've lost is in retaining children," she said "Right now I can't sell Downtown Learning Center, because we're not there. We're not in our building."

The center cares for 58 children, ages 6 weeks to 5 years. It typically has 68 to 72 children and is licensed by the Virginia Department of Social Services to have 88, Full said.

She said the center hasn't lost clients because of the building situation, though "it could have helped make that decision."

The space at Jefferson Center, which housed Total Action Against Poverty's Head Start until September 2008, has bathrooms with child-sized toilets and sinks, a kitchen, three entrances and an outdoor play area, according to the note to parents.

The Downtown Learning Center won't raise tuition because of the move, no matter the negotiated rent, Full said. The day care raises tuition every July, with the last increase at 1.2 percent.

Once Jefferson Center and Downtown Learning Center finalize the lease, the church council and board of trustees will terminate the center's lease early, Wright said.

After the move, the church will still offer its space to the day care for other functions, such as banquets or graduation, if requested, "unless they found a rich uncle somewhere," Wright said.

The church doesn't know yet whether it will fix up or tear down its building across the street, Wright said.

Before the Downtown Learning Center occupied the building, a printer and photo shop there had acid-based materials flowing through the pipes, Shawver said. The upstairs space -- and, accordingly, pipes in the ceiling -- hadn't been used for more than 30 years except for storage.

"It's an old building. I don't feel that there's blame on it," Full said about the present situation. "I do feel that the Downtown Learning Center is the innocent party in this because we lease the building."