A historic church in the Harlem section of New York City is under contract to be sold for conversion into a mixed-used development.
Crain’s New York reported Transfiguration Lutheran Church and two adjacent brownstones are under contract for $3.5 million to Brooklyn developer Jacob Leifer. The properties, which were appraised for $3.15 million last November, would be delivered vacant. The transaction requires the approval of Attorney General Letitia James because the seller is a nonprofit.
The property was built as a union clubhouse in 1898 and was sold in 1909 to the Harlem Swedish Evangelical Lutheran Church. Transfiguration Lutheran has been without a full-time pastor since 2006 and court filings describe the congregation as “dwindling,” “scattered,” and “diminished.”
In recent years, Harlem has witnessed the sale of multiple churches, a reflection of the neighborhood’s demographic changes. Simon McGowan, a real estate broker and architect, told Crain’s in 2019, “There’s not a church in Harlem that isn’t more valuable as a stack of condos.”
Photo courtesy of Daytonian in Manhattan