Monday, October 16, 2017

Unique 4th Street church on the market for development



The three-story building — aka the San Isidoro y San Leandro Western Orthodox Catholic Church of the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite — on Fourth Street between Avenue C and Avenue D is for sale.

The listing for the address describes it as a "religious building" and "former religious assembly space" with potential use as either a single-family home or multiple units. There are unused air rights too.

Here's more about the sale via Cushman & Wakefield:

[T]he building sits on a 24’ x 96’ lot and contains approximately 4,502 SF above grade or 6,810 SF with usable lower level. 345 East 4th Street is in an R8B zone which allows for a total BSF of 9,232 (approximately 4,730 SF of unused air rights are intact).

A new development (of 9,232 SF) could be residential single family/multi-family or Community Facility. The building was formerly used as a religious assembly space and will be delivered vacant upon sale.

It is currently configured with a step-down usable lower level, a former religious assembly space with soaring ceiling height on the first floor which includes mezzanine space, and an owner’s apartment on the top floor. The lower level previously housed building mechanicals but is now used for general storage and can be accessed directly from the street or from the first floor. Lower level and first floor are built full on the lot while the top floor is approximately 51’ deep.

The former religious assembly space benefits from tremendous ceiling heights (20+’) and therefore lends itself well to a user looking for interesting space. The owner’s unit has four rooms plus a kitchen, full bathroom and outdoor roof space. Due to the impending vacancy, the property presents an exceptionally unique opportunity for a developer and/or end user.

Price: $6 million.

According to New York City Songlines, the San Isidoro y San Leandro Western Orthodox Catholic Church of the Hispanic Mozarabic Rite is "named for brothers who were successive bishops in Seville, circa 600 AD. Originally a Russian Orthodox Church, built circa 1895." I do not know when the church last held any type of mass here.

Here are two photos of the interior that I took in 2011 during one of the many weekend rummage sales held here...





... and here's an interior shot via the Cushman & Wakefield marketing materials...



According to public records, Patricio Cubillos Murillo (there are several variations of this name) is the building's owner, with a deed dating to September 1975.

The document on file with the city shows that this building changed hands for $6,000 that year. Here's the first page...


[Click on image for more detail]

15 comments:

Anonymous said...

If this was the 1980's someone may buy this building and make it into a cool home for themselves and or family. In the year 2017 make no mistake this building will be demolished for condos and another piece of the our neighborhood's past will be gone forever.

Anonymous said...

Bought for $6,000 and on the market for $6,000,000. Let us pray that some of this profit will go to the parishioners who need money just to get by.
What is going to happen to all the wonderful religions icons on the walls? How about an auction with the money going to a family in need or a charity?

Anonymous said...

Such a beautiful building, heart wrenching to think it lasted this long, at least 122 years
to be destroyed.

Gojira said...

Oh no no no, this is one of my favorite buildings in the EV, and I know this sale spells its death knell. What a crappy way to start Monday!

Anonymous said...

Parishioners? there havent been parishioners or services here in 30 years, and probably not even since 1975. yet no property taxes have ever been paid either.

Anonymous said...

$6,000 then, $6 million now - this is a travesty, which can be spelled using the letters "GREED". It's like anything in this area is just a sitting duck, waiting for some developer to make out like a bandit.

@10:25am: I don't think churches pay property taxes, but I could be wrong.

Anonymous said...

Having spent my childhood on that horrid Street I for one say good riddance to everything on that block including the horrids I grew up with

Anonymous said...

11:05
Sorry you had a "horrid childhood" however destroying the block's buildings will not erase you bad memories.

Anonymous said...

A little about the previous owner (the RAaDCotNAaCDotROGCC)of that church that sold it for $6k:

https://streeteasy.com/talk/discussion/36589-349-w-86-5000000000

Anonymous said...

Sorry, forgot the street view of their Bronx address: https://goo.gl/maps/PxNnNprZNyL2

Anonymous said...

Nooooooo ughhhh we will never maintiain culture and history or anything special or unique, so fucking annoying.

chris flash said...

Get this: the church gets to own this place for 40+ years, paying NO TAXES, then gets to sell at the peak of a hyper-inflated real estate market, again paying NO TAX, at a price that makes the property available only to a monied member of the invasive species destroying our community and city.

Their "lord works in mysterious ways" alright....

Anonymous said...

I used to come down here when the Executive was sold across the street. Ahhh, the old LES !

Dcn Joseph Suaiden said...

I was married, and my son was baptized, in that Church. It had no jurisdiction, and was owned by a single monk, Fr Patricio. As I have been told, he reposed a few years back, sadly; I presume he deeded it to his nephew, who is likely the one selling it. (He and his wife are Jehovah's Witnesses, and my guess is the iconography would not be up to their religion's tastes.)

Because of its prime location, Fr Patricio rebuffed several developers willing to pay up to a million for the Church. I am saddened it is being sold, but my guess was that after his death, that was what was going to happen, as he refused to align with any particular Church or Synod.

Sad news indeed, but inevitable. My personal regret is not the building, but the loss of the library, which contained so many useful liturgical texts that he painstakingly collected over the better part of 40 years.

Dcn Joseph Suaiden

Anonymous said...

We had two ceremonies there, one was my marriage and the other was my son's baptism, though that was over a decade ago. I'm so sad to hear it is being sold.