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Wolfe Landau’s Watermark has a thing for abandoned churches

Brooklyn developer eyes third church property for redevelopment this year alone

Watermark eyes third church property for redevelopment in under a year
144 Saint Felix Street, 285 Willoughby Avenue and 783 Fourth Avenue (Google Maps, Getty)

For almost a decade, an under-the-radar Brooklyn developer has been snapping up abandoned churches with plans to replace them with residential buildings. 

The developer, Williamsburg-based Watermark Capital, submitted its latest proposal this month for a residential project on the site of a shuttered church at 783 Fourth Avenue in Greenwood Heights. 

The 218-unit project requires a zoning change, from the district’s current light manufacturing zoning status to residential. Watermark is starting the seven-month City Council review process that would allow the Williamsburg-based developer to build a 176,000 square-foot building with 64 affordable units that would replace the closed St. Rocco Roman Catholic Church. The proposal was first reported by Crain’s. If the plan is approved, Watermark would take over the leasehold. 

This project joins two other church deals the firm has inked over the past year. In June, it paid $15 million for Brooklyn’s Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church at 144 Saint Felix Street in Fort Greene. The property was being marketed as a development site. It’s unclear how the developer plans to work around the property’s landmark status.

Late last year, Watermark paid $12.3 million for St. Lucy’s-St. Patrick Roman Catholic Church at 285 Willoughby Avenue in Bedford-Stuyvesant and demolished it to make way for housing.

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In 2015, Watermark signed a leasehold for the property at 321 Wythe Avenue owned debt-ridden Saints Peter and Paul Church and converted it into a multifamily residence.

Co-founder Wolfe Landau, whose name appears on many of Watermark’s deals, did not respond to requests for comment.

Meanwhile, the firm is embarking on a conversion of 175 Pearl Street in the borough’s Dumbo neighborhood from office-to-residential, the Commercial Observer reported. 

Watermark was also sued by Rialto Capital Group last week for allegedly defaulting on a $45.3 million loan at an expansive Sunset Park development site.

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