Vanbarton Files Plans for Conversion of Archdiocese’s Former First Avenue HQ
By Isabelle Durso May 9, 2025 1:59 pm
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Vanbarton Group has finalized plans for its conversion of the Archdiocese of New York’s former headquarters in Midtown East.
Joseph Chilelli, a principal at Vanbarton, filed plans Thursday with the New York City Department of Buildings to convert and expand the existing 20-story Catholic Church office building at 1011 First Avenue into a 26-story, 420-unit residential building.
The filing, which also calls for 7,399 square feet of retail space on the ground floor of the property, listed an estimated job cost of $2.5 million.
Spokespeople for Vanbarton, the archdiocese and CetraRuddy Architecture, the architect listed on the project, did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
The filing comes after Vanbarton was in talks to buy the roughly 400,000-square-foot property between East 55th and East 56th streets, also known as the Terence Cardinal Cooke Building, in October for as much as $100 million, as Commercial Observer previously reported.
Vanbarton’s purchase of the building also followed the archdiocese’s major announcement in January 2024 to consolidate its offices around the city, including its offices at 1011 First Avenue, to 142,308 square feet within the Feil Organization’s 488 Madison Avenue, CO reported.
The archdiocese, which had been at 1011 First Avenue for more than five decades, decided to move to 488 Madison to “be closer to the people [it] serves throughout the archdiocese,” Cardinal Timothy Dolan wrote in a letter at the time of the announcement.
“It has been apparent for several years that ‘1011’ no longer made sense as our home,” Dolan wrote. “As a result, after broad consultation and careful research, a new location has been found at 488 Madison Avenue, next to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral, that will house the central offices of the archdiocese.”
It’s unclear when Vanbarton would move forward with its conversion, if approved, but the archdiocese was set to relocate “sometime in 2025,” according to the announcement.
The church conversion also represents Vanbarton’s second office-to-residential project underway in Manhattan, after it bought the office building 77 Water Street in the Financial District in September from Sage for $95 million, with plans to build as many as 600 residential units there, as CO previously reported.
Isabelle Durso can be reached at idurso@commercialobserver.com.
