Former church at 145 Central Park North recently resold by 2013 purchaser for 16 million, reportedly at $4 million profit. To be developed by Einhorn Group into an 11 story 24 unit building – undecided whether condo or rental.
There are a lot of small churches in Harlem but many of them cannot replace a diminishing, small population of older parishioners and younger members are not joining these days. Maintenance or repair of an old building can cost up to millions and thus some of the more diminutive congregations seem to be just cashing out as an alternative.
I hope when their time comes, as the small churches perish they bleed developers for every last cent they can get. They are sitting on gold mines the developers turn into platinum mines. So go for the gold.
ReplyDeleteThese can be win-win arrangements. The church often retains a long-term or permanent lease to church space in the new building, and then has newly renovated space and an infusion of funds to sustain it. All they give up is air space they aren't using anyway. I don't know the details in this specific case, but the transaction does not necessarily mean the demise of the church.
ReplyDeleteOne thing I don't understand though - if a church dissolves and sells its property for millions of dollars, where does that money go, given that the church has dissolved?
Thank god this is getting demolished and a new building is going up in it's place.. It seems as though there are 5 churches on every block! It doesn't make any sense
ReplyDeleteThere seems to be at least one or two churches -- some times more -- on every block in Harlem. Not to sound callous, but the parishioners of this church should have no problem finding another place to worship. Hope the building that replaces this one is aesthetically pleasing.
ReplyDeleteYeah, so sad that a church pays zero taxes for generations and takes gains that no one else could ever hope to get. Cry me a river.
ReplyDeleteUsually when a business loses its clientele, it either is forced to adapt to survive, or it's forced to close at a loss. Selling out to developers tax-free and then complaining that developers are taking over is a little bit silly. Funny that the same churches that are often so defensive about who lives in Harlem are the ones who take major amounts of money without question.
ReplyDeleteJesus wept.
Ulysses, is there any data on the density of churches in Harlem? Or is this something that has been written about?
ReplyDeleteAs the comments point out, Harlem seems to have a strikingly high number of churches. Obviously it's not a surprise that a historically black neighborhood would have many churches. But I wonder if there is any assessment of just how densely populated with churches the neighborhood really is. Would be interesting to get some perspective on this, especially now that this decades old church has been sold (something that we will probably see much more of as the development in Harlem continues).