NYC pays $36.9M for shuttered Catholic school in College Point

The New York City School Construction Authority paid $36.9 million to the Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic, an order within the Roman Catholic Church, for the school building (W2) at 123-15 14th Avenue in College Point, Queens. This is the former St. Agnes Academic High School. The city plans to develop a new high school on the site.
The deal closed on March 22, 2023 and was recorded on March 31, 2023. The property has 68,400 square feet of built space according to PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per built square foot is $538 per the PincusCo analysis. (The price per square foot analysis is the transaction price divided by square feet as reported in public records and assumes no air rights have been sold.)
The signatory for Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic and the Roman Catholic Church was Margaret McVetty. The signatory for the NYC School Construction Authority was Nina Kubota. The seller was represented by a CBRE team led by Daniel Kaplan, according to a press release of the listing in 2021. The contract date was October 18, 2021.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has records that the buyer the NYC School Construction Authority purchased 18 properties in 11 transactions for a total of $141.5 million and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Sisters of the Order of St. Dominic had not purchased any other properties and had not sold any properties over the same time period.

The property

The 123-15 14th Avenue parcel has frontage of 348 feet and is 99 feet deep with a total lot size of 47,952 square feet. The lot is irregular. The zoning is R4A which allows for up to 0.75 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $9.6 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property since September of 2020. In addition, according to city public data, the property has received $1,250 in ECB penalties in the last year.

Development

There are no active new building construction projects or major alteration projects with initial costs more than $5 million on this tax lot.

The neighborhood

In College Point, the bulk, or 48 percent of the 10.7 million square feet of commercial built space are industrial buildings, with specialty buildings next occupying 21 percent of the space. In sales, College Point has had very little sales volume relative to other neighborhoods with $141.8 million in sales volume in the last two years. For development, College Point has had very little major development activity relative to other neighborhoods.It had 113,144 square feet of commercial and multi-family construction under development in the last two years, which represents 1 percent of the neighborhood’s built space.

The block

There are no active new building construction projects on this tax block.

The majority, or 100 percent of the 68,400 square feet of built space are specialty buildings, with development buildings next occupying 0 percent of the space.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Roman Catholic Church owned at least 145 commercial properties in New York City with 4,199,809 square feet and a city-determined market value of $685.8 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 43 percent of the 4,199,809 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with M1 properties next occupying 23 percent of the space. The bulk, or 54 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Queens next at 26 percent of the space.

The buyer

The PincusCo database currently indicates that NYC Department of Education owned at least 927 commercial properties with 99,375,110 square feet, and a city-determined market value of $17.5 billion. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 99 percent of the 99,375,110 square feet of built space are specialty properties, with office properties next occupying 1 percent of the space. The bulk, or 37 percent of the built space, is in Brooklyn, with Bronx next at 23 percent of the space.

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