Historic Harlem Church To Be Sold, With Redevelopment Possible

HARLEM, NY — A prominent Harlem church building that was put up for sale months ago now has a buyer, court records show, leaving the historic structure's future in question.

St. Luke's Episcopal Church was built in 1895, and has stood for decades as an imposing presence on the corner of West 141st Street and Convent Avenue. Last fall, however, the building was listed for sale at $12 million by the church parish itself, which now holds services at St. Martin's Church on Lenox Avenue following a merger.

Now, a deal is in place: the church filed papers in state court on Tuesday, seeking permission to sell the building for $8.8 million. An agreement with the buyer, identified only as "435 West 141 Millennium LLC," was reached in May, according to the court filings.

While the church is not an individual landmark, it is part of the Hamilton Heights Historic District, which would force the new owners to obtain city permission to alter the church. When it was listed for sale, real estate brokers touted the 15,000-square-foot lot as a prime "redevelopment opportunity" — able to accommodate a new building as large as 60,975 square feet.

The buyer's identity is unclear, though the LLC is registered in Brooklyn. Their plans for the site are also not spelled out in the court filings, and a broker who handled the sale from the firm Marcus & Millichap could not immediately share any details when reached for comment on Wednesday.

Though less than the asking price, the $8.8 million sale is above the church's estimated value of $7.3 million, church leaders said in the court filings. Five church leaders, including priest-in-charge Patrick J. Williams, approved the sale in a May 2 resolution — a required step under state law when religious institutions sell their property.

Rev. Andrew M.L. Dietsche, the bishop who oversees all of New York City's Episcopal churches, also signed off on the sale last week.

St. Luke's was designed by the architect Robert H. Robertson — famed for designing grand towers like the Park Row Building and 150 Nassau St. in Lower Manhattan.

Recent photos of the church interior included in the listing show its high, vaulted ceilings and its large, century-old organ — though the images also show chipping paint on the ceilings, hinting at its decay. In recent years, the church has been shrouded in scaffolding, and city records show that neighbors have complained about drug sales and filthy conditions under the dark construction sheds at the apparently abandoned building.

In a 2002 "Streetscapes" column in the New York Times, Christopher Gay wrote admiringly of the church's "deep red brownstone," and quoted the historian Andrew Dolkart, who called its steep side elevation on West 141st Street "one of the most powerful architectural statements in New York."

It sits across the street from Hamilton Grange, the former estate of Alexander Hamilton, and the two buildings' histories are wrapped up in one another. When St. Luke's moved up to Harlem from Greenwich Village in the late 1800s, it initially moved into the Grange, then relocated the mansion two blocks south to save it from demolition.

Now, St. Luke's will join other Harlem churches like the All Saints Catholic Church on East 129th Street, Child's Memorial Temple on Amsterdam Avenue, Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church on West 126th Street, and Grace Congregational Church on West 139th Street, all of which have changed hands in recent years.

In some cases, the church buildings were later demolished to make way for housing, while others are being converted to new uses — like All Saints, which will soon begin a new life as a charter school.

Members of St. Luke's buyer, 435 West 141 Millennium LLC, include Eli Pavel, Joseph Riegler and Moshe Friedman, according to the court documents.

Have a Harlem news tip? Email reporter Nick Garber at nick.garber@patch.com.