Timber Equities Acquires Catholic Church Properties in Chelsea
By Mark Hallum January 31, 2025 12:29 pm
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Timber Equities is taking three adjacent Chelsea properties off the Catholic Church’s hands as part of a $48 million deal.
The developer entered into a contract with the Archdiocese of New York to buy the convent, rectory and school at 331-341 West 25th Street, according to property records. The buildings were once part of the Roman Catholic Church of Saint Columba but could be up for redevelopment as the archdiocese has been looking to offload the site.
PincusCo first reported the deal, which offers the buyers 128,375 square feet of development potential in the section between Eighth and Ninth avenues.
The future of the center of worship and the home to retired nuns on West 25th Street fell into question in 2022 when a canopy collapsed, leaving churchgoers with concerns of asbestos, according to Chelsea Community News.
It was marketed for sale as a residential conversion site back in August.
It’s unclear how old the existing structures are, but the church has been there since about 1845. Timber Equities has plans to raze what is standing and redevelop it into something else, though it’s unclear what it has planned.
Timber Equities and the archdiocese did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
JLL (JLL)’s Guthrie Garvin and Jonathan Hageman represented the sellers in the deal but did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.
