Developer Bruce Eichner’s Continuum Co. is moving forward with its plans for a luxury condo project at the site of a historic Murray Hill church.
A representative for the Community Church of New York recently filed plans with the Department of Buildings for a project at 34 E. 35th St. that will span about 173,000 square feet and have 137 residential units. The project will stand 18 stories and 191 feet tall, and it will include a 17-car parking garage and ground-floor commercial space as well, according to the filing.
The church is not a development partner on the project but had to file the plans because its sale to Continuum has technically not closed yet, Eichner said. The congregation has agreed to sell Eichner’s firm its building and a quartet of adjacent brownstone rentals for roughly $70 million.
Demolition work has already started, and Eichner expects to close on a construction loan during the fourth quarter of the year, he said. The project should be finished by mid-2027.
Prices for condos will likely start around $1.5 million, although Eichner stressed that it is “very, very difficult” to predict now where the real estate market will be in three years.
The project is located near several major hospitals, and Eichner sees their employees as a solid base of potential buyers. It is also close to Grand Central Terminal and the Midtown Tunnel.
The condo tower will include a large amount of green space for residents in the back. Continuum is partnering on the project with Aksoy Holding, a Turkish company that Eichner has worked with before, he said.
The congregation of the Community Church of New York, a Unitarian parish that dates back to 1825, approved the building’s tentative sale to Eichner on Oct. 31, 2021, by a 40-19 vote, and the church leaders reached a formal agreement with Eichner soon after. Opponents worried that the deal would leave them without a permanent home, but church treasurer George Garland previously told Crain’s that the cost of necessary repairs would have “wiped out” its endowment.
The organization purchased a new building on East 35th Street in the wake of its deal with Eichner that will include offices but does not have enough space for a house of worship, Crain’s reported in 2022. It is unclear if the church had found a new location for its religious services since then. Eichner said he did not know, and a representative for the church did not respond to a request for comment by press time.
The church has hosted several high-profile figures over its long history. It provided free practice space to folk singer Pete Seeger, who became part of the congregation in the 1990s, and hosted a 1962 debate between Malcolm X and Bayard Rustin, one of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s associates. Nelson Mandela also visited the church in 1994 after he was freed from prison.
Eddie Small , 2024-06-18 12:03:03
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