190-year-old church seeks to sell Murray Hill sanctuary for $15M, cease ministry

A church based on the teachings of a Swedish mystic incorporated in 1832 in New York City and originally known as the New Church Signified by the New Jerusalem in the City of New York, and now known as the New Church in New York, seeks to sell its chapel building at 114 East 35th Street in Murray Hill for $15 million to the Republic of Serbia. In addition, the religious organization faced with a dwindling membership, seeks to dissolve.

The church was built in 1859 by followers of Emanuel Swedenborg, who was a Swedish religious philosopher, mystic and scientist, according to The New York Times, which wrote about the building in 2007 after the congregation completed a $1.6 million rehabilitation of the Renaissance structure.
The brokers for the sale of the building were Berkshire Hathaway HomeServices New York Properties and Douglas Elliman, according to the purchase and sale agreement. The contract was dated July 22, 2022. The listing is visible here.

The court filing is here.

The property

The 114 East 35 Street parcel has frontage of 77 feet and is 98 feet deep with a total lot size of 7,615 square feet. The zoning is R8B which allows for up to 4 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The property is in the Murray Hill Historic District. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4.2 million.

Development

Over the past five years, there has been no NYC Department of Buildings new building, demolition, or alteration permit application valued at more than $20,000 filed for this parcel.

Violations and lawsuits

According to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020.

The neighborhood

In Grand Central, the majority, or 80 percent of the 43.9 million square feet of commercial built space are office buildings, with hotel buildings next occupying 8 percent of the space. In sales, Grand Central has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $875.2 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 17th highest in Manhattan. For development, Grand Central has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 22nd highest in Manhattan. It had 1.2 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 3 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of five of the 21 commercial properties representing 260,781 square feet of the 511,029 square feet. The largest owner is Zucker Organization, followed by Samson Management and then Yeshiva University. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

Within a 400-foot radius of 124 East 35 Street, Pincusco identified two commercial real estate items of interests occurred over the past 24 months. Of those two items, two were loans above $5 million totaling $87 million. The most recent of the two was Zucker Organization which borrowed $56 million from PCCP secured by the 164,073-square-foot, 196-unit rental (D6) on 115 East 34th Street on December 14, 2021.

Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.