City buying former Westchester Square convent land for $8.5M to build new school
Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus convent (Credit - Google Earth)
The city’s School Construction Authority is buying a former convent location composed of four adjacent tax lots including 1651 Zerega Avenue, in Westchester Square, the Bronx, for $8.5 million to build new school, state records show. The seller is the Connecticut-based Roman Catholic religious congregation, the Apostles of the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The sale was disclosed in a document memorializing the New York State Attorney General’s approval of the congregation petition to sell the property.
NYS Attorney General approval to sell Westchester Square convent
The School Construction Authority was an active buyer between 2022 and 2024.
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The property
The specialty building in Westchester Square has 14,528 square feet of built space and 28,998 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 43,497 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The parcel has two buildings with frontage of 181 feet and is 102 feet deep with a total lot size of 17,900 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R6 which allows for up to 2.43 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $1.9 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 for the past 24 months.
The neighborhood
In Westchester Square, The bulk, or 30 percent of the 5.3 million square feet of commercial built space are walkup buildings, with office buildings next occupying 18 percent of the space. In sales, Westchester Square has near average sales volume among other neighborhoods with $126.7 million in sales volume in the last two years and is the 10th highest in Bronx. For development, Westchester Square has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 32nd highest in Bronx. It had 259,698 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 5 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.
The block
On the tax block, there were two new building construction projects totaling 10,331 square feet. The largest is a eight-unit, 5,759 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Luigi Laverghetta with plans filed January 28, 2022 and permitted June 9, 2022. The second largest is a seven-unit, 4,571 square-foot residential (R-2) building submitted by Luigi Laverghetta with plans filed January 28, 2022 and permitted June 9, 2022.
The surrounding
This is the first commercial real estate event of interest identified within the 400-foot radius of 1651 Zerega Avenue in the past 24 months.
Direct link to the property’s ACRIS page and link to DOB NOW portal.