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Vacant St. Elias Church in Greenpoint to Be Converted to Single-Family Residence

St. Elias Church (NYC ZoLa)

Sept. 12, 2018 By Nathaly Pesantez

The St. Elias Church building, within a landmarked section of Greenpoint, will be converted into a single-family home, according to Department of Building filings.

The plans, filed last week, call for the long-vacant building at 145 Kent St. to be converted into one residence spanning more than 13,800 square feet and with three stories.

Work in the old church includes building out new stairs, renovating the existing kitchen, installing new interior partitions, and building in new equipment, according to the filing. Additionally, the small building that used to be a Sunday school at 149 Kent St. also appears to be part of the filing.

Since the building is landmarked, the developer must also receive approvals from the city’s Landmarks Commission.

The site is currently managed by Hirsch Enterprises, a real estate management and brokerage company with experience in converting places of worship and landmarked non-residential buildings to homes. In 2005, for example, the former St. George’s Church in Manhattan debuted as a 31-condo building after the company acquired it in the 1990s.

Hirsch Enterprises purchased the former St. Elias church building for $3.5 million in 2007, property records show.

Hirsch Enterprises did not immediately respond to questions on the development’s timeline and plans for selling the completed building. Prior reports, however, show that the company has spent several years looking for buyers.

“It’s obviously a very unique property for someone who’s an artistic sort of person or a Wall Street type guy who made way too much money and really wants to live in a grand style,” Herbert Hirsch, owner of Hirsh Enterprises, said to the Wall Street Journal in 2010.

The property listing on Trulia.com says it’s off market, with the developer touting the building, built in 1869, as a “live/work mansion opportunity” for a total price of $7.1 million.