Roman Catholic Church of St. Rita sells vacant city block in Manor Heights for $8.3m

The entity Manor Heights Estates, LLC paid $8.3 million to the Roman Catholic Church of St. Rita for an entire city block that is a vacant lot with the approximate address of 91 Wellbrook Avenue in Manor Heights, Staten Island. The block is bounded by Holden Boulevard, Wellbrook Avenue, Queen Street and Graves Street.
The deal closed on June 10, 2024 and was recorded on July 16, 2024. The property has zero square feet of built space and 38,500 square feet of additional air rights for a total buildable of 38,500 square feet according to a PincusCo analysis of city data. The sale price per buildable square foot is $215 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 Roman Catholic Church and Church of St. Rita was Eugene J. Carrella. The contract date was November 8, 2023. A state court judge in Staten Island approved the sale to Randy Franza through the entity Wallace Avenue Builders LLC  but the final buyer was Manor Heights estates LLC, at the same address as Randy Franza’s entity. It’s unclear if Randy Franza is the buyer, or if he flipped the contract to an unrelated buyer.

Prior sales and revenue

Prior to this transaction, PincusCo has no record that the buyer Randy Franza had purchased any other properties and has no record it sold any properties over the past 24 months.
The seller Roman Catholic Church had not purchased any other properties and sold 26 properties in 19 transactions for a total of $184.4 million over the same time period.

The property

The parcel has frontage of 380 feet and is 200 feet deep with a total lot size of 77,000 square feet. The zoning is R3-1 which allows for up to 0.5 times floor area ratio (FAR) for residential. The city-designated market value for the property in 2022 is $4 million.

Violations and lawsuits

There were no lawsuits or bankruptcies filed against the property for the past 24 months. In addition, according to city public data, the property has not received any significant violations in the last year.

Development

On the lot, there is one active new building construction project for a one-unit, 1,404 square-foot R-3 building. The project was submitted by Randy Franza with plans filed December 29, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet.

The block

On the tax block, there were 32 new building construction projects totaling 44,933 square feet. The largest is a one-unit, 1,404 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Randy Franza with plans filed December 29, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet. The second largest is a one-unit, 1,404 square-foot residential (R-3) building submitted by Randy Franza with plans filed December 29, 2023 and it has not been permitted yet.

The seller

The PincusCo database currently indicates that Roman Catholic Church owned at least 146 commercial properties with 886 residential units in New York City with 4,220,236 square feet and a city-determined market value of $748.7 million. (Market value is typically about 50% of actual value.) Within the portfolio, the bulk, or 43 percent of the 4,220,236 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.

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