A prominent piece of religious real estate in Morningside Heights could soon meet its maker.
Charney Cos., a residential developer that has previously built in Brooklyn and Queens, has purchased a Gothic-style dorm for divinity students next to the Riverside Church for $38 million.
The latest example of a nonprofit religious group unloading holdings in order to raise funds, the deal for 97 Claremont Ave., a 7-story granite-and-limestone structure at West 122nd Street near Columbia University, went into contract Aug. 17 and closed March 18, according to the city register.
A non-landmarked property just outside the neighborhood’s historic district, the 44-room, 1932 building, called McGiffert Hall, had been used for decades by Union Theological Seminary to house students. A tunnel runs under Clermont Avenue from the dorm to the seminary’s main campus.
But No. 97 seems to have been eyed for redevelopment for a while. Reportedly unable to come up with enough money for improvements to facades and heating systems, Union began selling portions of its Gothic-style prewar campus in recent years. Indeed, in 2018 the seminary sold No. 97 to the Riverside Church for $46.5 million, records show. As part of the deal, the church agreed to keep the L-shaped, 78,400-square-foot property as student housing for five years.
Yet with the expiration of that promise in 2023, the church apparently moved to sell to help fund its own operations, though it fetched a lower price than it paid. It’s not clear what kind of housing might rise on the site, which seems underbuilt relative to its surroundings and would likely be able to avail itself of local air rights.
No permits are yet on file with the Department of Buildings for No. 97. And a phone message left with a church spokeswoman was not returned. Also, Charney declined to comment through a spokeswoman.
But a glance across the street might offer insight. Soaring above Union’s campus today is a 41-story, 165-unit apartment building from the team of L+M Development Partners, Lendlease and Daiwa House, another outcome of the school’s recent redevelopment push. The seminary later bought 28 units in the tower, called Claremont Hall, for faculty housing.
In the past church officials have said that they hope whatever becomes of McGiffert reflects the progressive mission of the institution, which was founded by John D. Rockefeller Jr. and has hosted sermons by civil rights leaders Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Nelson Mandela. As of 2022, its pastor, the Rev. Adriene Thorne, is a Black woman, the first ever to lead the church.
The church in recent years has also faced nearly three-dozen lawsuits over sex abuse claims related to children who once played in the church’s popular basketball program under a former coach, court records show.
Some neighbors have opposed any kind of demolition at the site, which was not included in the 2000 landmark designation that protected next-door Riverside Church and sits three blocks north of the historic district.
The Morningside Heights Historic District Committee, founded in 2016, has led many of the protests. “We are concerned that McGiffert is at risk of gross non-contextual development, or even demolition to accommodate the purchaser’s financial development objectives and expected return on investment,” the group said in its September newsletter.
Other lofty projects to go up in the area in recent years include Vandewater, a 32-story condo tower from Savanna that replaced a library wing on the Jewish Theological Seminary campus; the seminary sold Savanna the parcel in 2016 for $77 million.
With the acquisition, Charney, which was founded in 2013 by former Two Trees Management executive Sam Charney, appears to have picked up its first Manhattan site. Previously, it built a string of midsize condo and rental projects in places such as Long Island City, including the Green House on Jackson Avenue, a 50-story, 46-unit development decorated in vivid murals.
C. J. Hughes , 2024-03-28 19:07:57
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