Rivington Company signs $14.5M contract for LES church, rectory

Travis Stabler’s Rivington Company signed a $14.5 million contract last month to buy a two-parcel redevelopment site at 53 Catherine Street and 5 Monroe Street in Two Bridges on Manhattan’s Lower East Side from the Archdiocese of New York. The property was the former Church of St. Joachim and an adjacent rectory. The charter school Great Oaks most recently occupied the property.
The contract is dated May 9, 2023. A January 2023 appraisal valued the properties at $10.3 million.

The Rivington Company is developing projects in Bedford Stuyvesant and Bushwick.

The two buildings have at total of 49,939 square feet of built space, which is larger than can be built if the properties were demolished, according to a Cushman & Wakefield appraisal of the property, which says it has a total of 35,487 square feet of development rights.

According to the contract, the sale is set to close on the “later of September 15, 2023 or forty five days from the date of Seller’s receipt of all Approvals,” though there is an extension option.

Avison Young brokered the sale, according to the contract. Avison Young’s Brandon Polakoff, Charles Kingsley, Fritz Richter, Alexandra Marolda and Ryan McGuirl, marketed the property as a conversion opportunity, asking $14.95 million or $299 per square foot

According to the Cushman & Wakefield appraisal, “After adjustments, the comparable land sales reflect unit prices ranging from $285.32 to $505.46 per square foot and an average of $386.70 per square foot. After considering all of the available market data, it is our opinion that the appropriate unit value range to apply to the subject would fall toward the low end of the adjusted range from $300 to $350 per square foot of zoning floor area. We have reconciled this range to $325 per square foot.” The final price per foot for the appraisal analysis was $290 per foot.

Court LINK

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