Photos by Stacie Joy
The former St. Brigid School building at 185 E. Seventh St., on the northeast corner of Avenue B, is now being marketed as a development site. (This is just for the former school. The St. Brigid-St. Emeric church and the rectory are not part of the potential sale.)
Per the Avison Young listing, the property owned by the Archdiocese of New York is being pitched as a "premier development opportunity" adjacent to Tompkins Square Park, with the potential for roughly 71,000 square feet of residential use — or more than 94,000 square feet with on-site affordable housing under current zoning and available air rights.
"The East Village has seen minimal ground-up luxury condominium construction in recent years, creating a rare opportunity to capture unmet demand in a supply-constrained market," the listing notes.
The building most recently served as the city's Asylum Seeker Resource Navigation Center and Reticketing Center, which quietly closed in June 2025. For more than two years, the building had assisted with asylum seekers.
Before that, the site housed the St. Brigid School, founded in 1856, for generations.
As previously reported, the Archdiocese of New York announced in early 2019 that the school would close at the end of the academic year — a move that blindsided students, parents and faculty.
No official word on what a future project here might look like, though the listing makes clear what could rise on this corner via this rendering (brace!):
And an aerial view via Avison Young showing the corner and surrounding parts of the East Village and Tompkins Square Park...
Previously on EV Grieve:
25 comments:
More housing, woo!
Wow. Not a knee-jerk opponent of new and somewhat larger buildings but this is a "brace for it" example. I guess the site would benefit from church/rectory air rights to build this big as-of-right. Big sigh, but not the hill I would die on.
I always remark [sarcastically] that this neighborhood is starved for luxury housing.
Ok I get it, The Catholic Church has to pay for all those pedophile priest law suits but saying "The East Village has seen minimal ground-up luxury condominium construction in recent years"? Are you talking about some other East Village?
Really excited to get some new housing at this location!
I admire you, Carol, for calling out the hypocrisy of the Catholic Church.
That is substantial, but probably not taller than the Christodora building, right? If this were affordable housing, it'd be fine.
A building that large and with rents on the lux level... the EV gets nothing it needs. The street scene will change. Restaurants will be more expensive and there will be less sunlight in the park. Lose/lose situation.
This is fine period.
What housing or street scene does the current building provide?
It matters what kind of housing. Luxury units do not provide as much housing for people. Steiner building perpetually has vacancy on Ave A. Never mind that they are going on a decade now (or 8 years?) with an abandoned store front most of the length of the block.
I am a long term resident of 7th street and C. This proposal is an abomination. What a sick, cruel joke if this actually happens.
Good. More customers for small businesses in the area and more housing inventory is good for everyone
Good lord that is enormous.
All for new housing, but it would be better if this development stuck to the height of surrounding buildings rather than another one as tall as the Christodora.
IDK, when you read the listing and look at the brokers this listing really looks like a commercial real estate grab from a company based in Illinois... I hope this doesn't happen. The building would be completely out of character with its surroundings and just looks humungous. Might shade out part of the park too.
Steiner's storefront vacancy is an abomination but it does have 73/82 units rented our bought.
We don't need luxury housing for finance bros at this location. We need affordable housing. .
ug this is just a drag gonna be Lux $$$$ housing when what we need city wide is Low Income Housing, enough with this weird wording of affordable ( the metric for affordable basically makes it only high earners can afford them ) Low Income housing for local public servants, Teachers and other essential workers is what this in a just world would be
I don't see how it's possible that lot has that much air space? Wasn't the proposal from a decade ago for a similar-sized building eventually rejected because the paperwork misstated the air rights?
If you pay for it sure. Otherwise housing filters down. There will be less finance bros looking for spots in your walk up.
Whys that? I think it should be just as tall. Christodora is a great building.
Billionaires, please purchase it and turn it into a public green space. Maybe an indoor garden.
F* predatory capitalism, The Real Estate Board of NY - NY's largest political donator and lobbyists, the Anon real estate shills on these posts, and the Catholic Diocese of NY for looking out for nothing but itself in neighborhoods that were their backbone for generations.
Better than lux housing... Does anybody on this blog work for Google or any other AI company? Well, if you do... This school would be a perfect location for a first of its kind AI school. The city cancelled its version because parents objected but a privately funded school would succeed. I'm not into AI and think its potential is worrisome... But it's a perfect opportunity to save the corner and do something for our students... education never hurt anyone. And the cost to a AI company is nothing. So if you work or know somebody who works for and AI company mention the possibility and see how far it can go. Ok? Ok.
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