Deconsecrated Church of the Redeemer sold for $20 million

Condo construction widely anticipated

September 15, 2014 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

This is the Church of the Redeemer, which has just been sold for $20 million. Eagle photo by Josh Ross

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Gone Baby Gone.

The historic Church of the Redeemer right near Barclays Center has been sold for $20 million. Can anybody say condo site?

Bishop Lawrence Provenzano of the Episcopal Diocese of Long Island put the word out Monday about the sale of the shuttered 148-year-old Boerum Hill church at 561 Pacific St. It was designed by Patrick Keely, known as “the prince of American Catholic architects.”

The buyer is a “New York-based company that specializes in owning and operating real estate,” the bishop said in a letter to former leaders and members of the church, which was deconsecrated in summer 2012. The diocese sent excerpts of his letter to reporters in a press release Monday.

The sale deed hasn’t yet been recorded in city Finance Department records, so the precise identity of the new owner could not be ascertained.

Ever since demolition plans for the Gothic Revival building were announced in 2012, it has been widely expected that whoever was the property’s next owner would construct condos.

At one point, the asking price for the church building was $17 million.

A neighborhood group, the East Pacific Street Block Association, campaigned to save the church building. Episcopal authorities estimated that its renovation would cost an estimated $4 million to $5 million.

The diocese spent more than a year looking for ways to continue the Church of the Redeemer’s ministry in its neighborhood. But “there were no realistic prospects for a large increase in donations or in members that could have covered immediate and ongoing expenses,” the bishop wrote. Joint commercial ventures at the church location that would have included space and income for the ministry were considered.

But mounting monthly expenses ultimately prompted the diocese to accept “a commercial offer for an outright sale of the building and property,” Provenzano wrote.

“Income from investment by the diocese of the sale proceeds will be used for Brooklyn and other diocesan ministry efforts,” he added.