Vanbarton to Buy Archdiocese’s First Avenue HQ for Office-to-Residential Conversion

As it says in the good book, “Repent therefore and be converted (to residential).”

The Vanbarton Group is seeking to buy the Catholic Church’s former offices at 1101 First Avenue for an office-to-residential conversion.

Vanbarton could be spending as much as $100 million on the building that served as the headquarters of the Archdiocese of New York after the religious organization made major moves to consolidate its offices to 488 Madison Avenue, Bloomberg reported.

The sale comes after the archdiocese signed a 142,308-square-foot lease with the Feil Organization at 488 Madison in January, a major change for the church that had kept its headquarters on First Avenue for five decades, as Commercial Observer previously reported.

Vanbarton and the Archdiocese of New York did not immediately respond to a request for comment. CBRE (CBRE), whose Doug Middleton was negotiating on behalf of the church, declined to comment.

It’s unclear if a deal has closed, but it would be the second office-to-residential conversion Vanbarton is gearing up to do in the city. The Vanbarton Group recently bought 77 Water Street from Sage for $95 million with the intention of creating 600 new homes, CO recently reported, and within days announced that it was seeking $265 million in acquisition and construction financing to make the conversion happen.

While a small minority of office buildings in New York City are structural candidates for conversion, embattled Mayor Eric Adams has been trying to make it easier on the zoning side through his package of reforms known as  “City of Yes for Housing Opportunity.”

Adams’s political future is uncertain, however, and that might impact his ability to push through the zoning reforms. A federal investigation into alleged bribery is underway, along with another from Manhattan District Attorney Alvin Bragg, who is looking into the city’s office leasing patterns for alleged conflicts of interest, corruption and money laundering.

The City of Yes was approved by the New York City Planning Commission at the end of September and is set to go before the New York City Council, with the Subcommittee on Zoning and Franchises holding two days of hearings on Oct. 21 and Oct. 22. However, Council Speaker Adrienne Adams recently told the Gothamist that the council won’t approve the proposal without a bigger push for affordable housing construction.

Mark Hallum can be reached at mhallum@commercialobserver.com.