The Madison Avenue Baptist Church officially sold its historic parish house, according to property records filed with the city yesterday.
The five-story building at 30 East 31st Street traded hands on June 9 for $15,599,500. The buyer: Development firm Certes Partners.
The church put the building on the market in July 2013. The parish, built in 1906, houses church offices, a pastor’s office, meeting spaces and two ballet companies – the Dokoudovsky New York Conservatory of Dance and New York Theatre Ballet. The church’s sanctuary is located at 131 Madison Avenue, at 31st Street, and is located in the Roger, a 15-story boutique hotel.
In a previous interview with The Real Deal, parish administrator Brian Crowson said that, after the sale, tenants would have between six and nine months to move out.
David Colen and Lawrence Porter of Newmark Grubb Knight Frank had the listing. The brokers were not immediately available for comment.
The Madison Avenue Baptist Church started off in 1848 as the Rose Hill Baptist Sunday School and Church on East 30th Street between Third and Lexington avenues.
When the congregation listed the building last year, the chair of the Madison Avenue Baptist Church Trustees wrote a letter to parishioners, in which she explained that the “exorbitant upkeep cost” and market conditions were the reason for the sale.
The site, with 46,500 buildable square feet, is zoned for ground-up construction of a residential or a hotel property, as well as ground floor retail.
