International Korean church to buy UWS synagogue building for $10M

A New Jersey affiliate of the Korea-based World Mission Society Church of God is expected to close soon on the $10 million purchase of the synagogue building at 176 West 105th Street on the Upper West Side of Manhattan, from the sellers, Kehilat Romemu, a congregation that will move to a leased space.
The contract and expected closing were disclosed in a document (176 West 105th Street sale approval pdf) formalizing the New York State Attorney General’s approval of the sale of the property, which is generally required by New York State law when a nonprofit or religious entity seeks to sell a significant asset. The document is dated July 10, 2024. The closing date was not disclosed, but the document says, “there is a short closing period upon receipt of the approval of the transaction,” by the Attorney General.

The property was marketed by Open Impact Real Estate, (sales material for 176 West 105th Street), which says the three-story building has 10,242 square feet above grade and approximately 9,024 square feet of air rights.

The approval document said the broker fee was $400,000.

Kehilat Romemu bought the building from the YMCA in 2018 for $9 million.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 40 feet and is 80 feet deep with a total lot size of 3,236 square feet. The zoning is R8A which allows for up to 6.02 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential with inclusionary housing. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $2.6 million.

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 Upper West Side, The majority, or 59 percent of the 52.9 million square feet of commercial built space are elevator buildings, with walkup buildings next occupying 23 percent of the space. In sales, Upper West Side has the 6th highest sale turnover among other neighborhoods in the city with $1.2 billion in sales volume in the last two years. For development, Upper West Side has near average amount of major developments among other neighborhoods and is the 10th highest in Manhattan. It had 3 million square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 6 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

On this tax block, PincusCo has identified the owners of 12 of the 15 commercial properties representing 246,769 square feet of the 365,493 square feet. The largest owner is Black Spruce Management, followed by Brusco Group and then L+M Development Partners. There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The surrounding

This is the first commercial real estate event of interest identified within the 400-foot radius of 915 Amsterdam Avenue in the past 24 months.

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