Developer To Raze Historic Chelsea Nursery School Building

CHELSEA, NY — A developer aims to convert a Chelsea brownstone that housed one of the city's oldest nursery schools into a seven-story residential building, records filed with the city show.

The 214 W. 15th Street building was part of the Nazareth Nursery Montessori School, a 114-year-old charitable institution, whose modest tuition and Roman Catholic foundation was long prized by parents.

Suddenly, the Sisters of St. Francis of the Neumann Communities, a religious order based in Syracuse, New York, announced plans to shutter the school in June, 2015. But not before outraged parents filed a suit in Manhattan Supreme Court alleging that officials wanted to boot the school's 55 students so the sisters could cash in on the facility's lucrative real estate, the New York Post reported at the time.

The nuns countered that the neighborhood's demographics had changed and that there wasn't as dire a need for the school's services, which were originally intended to serve women working in the Meatpacking District.

School spokeswoman Rochelle Casella told the Post that the school was “not up for sale” but noted that the nuns had not decided what the buildings would be used for once it closed.

After fighting the suit, the sisters' continued with their plans to shutter the school.

This July, the 214 W. 15th Street building was sold to luxury firm Holliswood Development for $12.6 million. Holliswood aims to raze the current four-story brownstone and erect a 75-foot tall building with six new residential units, according to city records.

Construction on the project is expected to begin in April.

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