Controversial Harlem church files for bankruptcy, values building at $10M

By Adam Pincus

The pastor of a controversial conservative Christian church located in Harlem filed for bankruptcy protection Sunday afternoon to stave off a looming tax lien foreclosure which could lead to the loss of the building valued at $10 million, court records show. However Pastor James Manning and his Atlah World Missionary Church survived an earlier foreclosure threat, in 2016.

Manning filed the chapter 11 bankruptcy petition under the corporate name Bethelite Community Baptist Church Inc., which is the legal owner of the building, which it acquired in 1984 for $300,000 according to a PincusCo analysis of transfer records. The bankruptcy petition is here (22-10374), while the foreclosure case is here (113197/2009).

The 14,372-square-foot, four-and-a-half-story building is at the corner of 123rd Street and Malcom X Boulevard, and sits on a 3,366-square-foot lot. The Harlem Club, a social organization for white men that excluded Jews, built the Romanesque Revival structure in 1889. After  financial difficulties, the building was sold at a foreclosure auction in 1907. It was later home to Father Divine, a charismatic Harlem spiritual leader. It is within the Mount Morris Park Historic District.

Atlah World Missionary Church became known for posting anti-gay and controversial messages on its signboard, such as “Obama has released the homo demons on the black man.” Two gay rights groups sought to replace the church with a LGBTQ community center in 2016, when the building was under an earlier threat of foreclosure.

The tax lien foreclosure sale is set for April 20. Manning estimates the building to be worth $10 million and the liabilites are far lower. He estimates disputed debts that may have a lien at $3.65 million and those without a lien at $1.2 million.

The public radio station WNYC reported on allegations against the organization, which also runs a school. In 2016, The New York Times reported on Manning’s efforts to fight off an earlier threatened foreclosure.

Manning in his filing estimates in the coming 30 days he will have $48,000 in revenue and $40,000 in expenses. The largest liability is a $2.195 million tax lien, which is marked as disputed.

According to the petition, “Debtor is a not-for-profit church, that owns a building located at 36-38 West 123rd Street… Debtor operates a small private school, which is also not-for-profit; and houses several members of its congregation who are homeless. Debtor has been litigating with New York City regarding our water and sewer charges since the 1980’s, and NYC have [sic] consistently denied our application for exemption, even though debtor is a religious and charitable tax exempt organization. Similar tax exemption disputes are outstanding with the IRS and NYS, and the NYS Workers Comp Board penalized us repeated over the course of several years, even though we told them that we were exempt. The Chapter 11 was provoked by a pending foreclosure on Debtor’s building at 36-38 West 123 Street.”