Altar-ed Plans: Harlem Church To Reportedly Become 30 Apartments

HARLEM, NY – A Brooklyn developer, Jacob Leifer, plans to convert Transfiguration Lutheran Church and two brownstones into a mixed-use development, Crain’s reported on Wednesday.

Transfiguration Lutheran and the adjacent properties, at 70-78 W. 126th Street between Malcolm X and Fifth avenues, are in contract for $3.5 million. Since the seller is a nonprofit, the transaction requires approval from Attorney General Letitia James’ office.

The properties are being sold as is and are to be delivered vacant, according to court filings. They were appraised for $3.15 million in November 2023.

Transfiguration Lutheran has been without a full-time pastor since the resignation of Barbara Kearse in 2006, who stepped away as a result of health reasons, court filings show. These filings also describe the congregation as “dwindling,” “scattered,” and “diminished,” leaving Transfiguration Lutheran “unable to fulfill the purposes for which it was organized.”

Numerous churches have been sold to developers in Harlem in recent years, as the neighborhood undergoes gentrification and significant demographic shifts.

"There's not a church in Harlem that isn't more valuable as a stack of condos,” Simon McGowan, a real estate broker and architect, told Crain’s in 2019.

At the time, there were more than 900 parcels classified as religious buildings throughout Manhattan. Of these, as many as 650 were "neither protected landmarks nor in historic districts," and about 200 were located in "neighborhoods zoned for mid- to high-density housing, making them prime prospects for development."

Leifer plans to renovate the buildings rather than demolish them, according to Crain’s.

Nearby on the Upper West Side, a major neighborhood battle unfolded between preservationists and developers over the landmarked West-Park Presbyterian Church.

West-Park is safe – for now.

Unlike the Upper West Side, most of Central Harlem, including Transfiguration Lutheran and its adjacent brownstones, is not landmarked.

Is your place of worship considering selling to a developer? Do you have questions about a development project in your neighborhood? Email [email protected].