Brooklyn Developers to Acquire Church Site in Downtown Brooklyn for Resi Project

Tankhouse and Lonicera Partners — a pair of Brooklyn-based developers — are in contract to acquire a church property in Downtown Brooklyn and build a new residential building on the site.

The developers are set to buy the development site at 360 Schermerhorn Street on the border of Boerum Hill for $28.3 million from the First Baptist Church in Pierrepont Street, a petition filed Tuesday in Kings County Supreme Court shows.

Tankhouse and Lonicera are planning to demolish the existing two-story religious structure to build residential housing, according to the filing, though there is no more information currently available regarding what the project would entail.  

The signatories on the contract were pastor Edwin Colon for the seller and Sam Alison-Mayne, co-founder of Tankhouse, for the buyers. The church could not be reached for comment, while the developers did not immediately respond to Commercial Observer’s requests for comment. 

The church, which claimed in the petition that its current Schermerhorn Street site is “a financial burden,” plans to transition to a new location as part of the deal and will relocate all its existing ministries and continue providing similar services at its new site, according to the filing. 

The Downtown Brooklyn site spans about 145,000 buildable square feet, according to data from PincusCo. The agreement is contingent on approval from the congregation, as well as no objection by the Attorney General of the State of New York. Nonprofits are required by New York law to obtain approval when it seeks to sell its assets.

Church properties have been changing hands around Brooklyn lately. A 170-year-old monastery in Bay Ridge sold for $42.25 million this week, CO reported. The Sisters of the Visitation’s 7.5-acre campus at 8902 Ridge Boulevard was sold to a group of Brooklyn developers including Integritas Capital and Heights Advisors.

Developers are also planning more housing around Brooklyn. Earlier this summer, Moses Karpen of Waterfront Property Management filed plans to build two new 99-unit residential buildings at 1029 Atlantic Avenue and the neighboring 1035 Atlantic Avenue. Meanwhile, Apex Investment Real Estate filed plans to bring a 224-unit residential to 530 Utica Avenue. 

Amanda Schiavo can be reached at aschiavo@commercialobserver.com.