NEW YORK
Crain’s New York Business
Real estate investors are likely to cast a longing eye on 19 churches that the Catholic Archdiocese plans to shutter, only a handful of which are encumbered with landmarking restrictions.
BY JOE ANUTA
NOVEMBER 4, 2014
The Archdiocese of New York’s plan to consolidate 37 parishes in the city could prove a boon for real estate developers—especially since most of the properties set to be vacated are not landmarked.
As part of a large-scale restructuring that first came to light late last month, the archdiocese will cease services at 19 churches in Manhattan, the Bronx and Staten Island and will integrate those parishes with 18 others in the city.
Those individual parishes will decide what to do with the unused buildings in the short term, according to the archdiocese, but both the archdiocese and the parishes will likely decide to sell at least some of the parcels eventually.
As of now, there would be little impediment to their development. Only two of the churches set for closure are landmarked, with one more calendared for consideration. That means it is protected until the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission makes a decision.
In some cases, the church has campaigned against the landmarking of archdiocese property. Take the East Village/Lower East Side Historic District for example. A number of representatives from Catholic churches and organizations opposed the inclusion of the Church of the Nativity at 44 Second Ave. in the historic district. In the end the commission voted to do just that, neatly carving the property out of the district.
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