A Harlem church may be having second thoughts about turning over its century-old stone-walled building to a developer.
The Roman Catholic Church of Saint Paul and Holy Rosary has backed out of an agreement to sell its longtime home at 442 and 444 E. 119th St. to Queens-based Kahen Development Group, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday in Manhattan state Supreme Court.
Sharon Kahen, the company’s owner, inked a deal on June 28 to offload the Romanesque Revival house of worship for $5 million, according to a signed purchase and sale agreement included in court records.
It’s unclear what Kahan’s precise plans are for the site, which was deconsecrated in 2017 before the church merged its parish with a nearby one at 113 E. 117th St. But the property will likely be turned into an apartment building.
Indeed the property sits on a block already zoned for residential and comes with almost 5,000 square feet of air rights and an as-of-right yield of 40,000 square feet, court records indicate. And in the fall, Kahen submitted plans to the Department of Buildings to completely raze the historic structure between First and Pleasant avenues, city records show, though they have yet to be approved.
Also Kahen told The New York Times in 2013 that he and his business partner would “invest $75 million to connect East Harlem to the Upper East Side” through contiguous lots redeveloped into housing.
But the closing of the sale, which was scheduled for Dec. 3, never took place, records show. Instead, the church pushed it back to Jan. 22 while at the same time allegedly refusing to provide Kahen with the necessary paperwork in order to secure the demolition permit needed to begin redevelopment, according to court documents.
In his filing Kahen accuses the church of breach of contract, alleging that the religious institution is threatening to terminate the entire agreement in putting the closing date at risk.
Kahen’s attorney, Gerard Misk, of Queens-based law firm Ginsburg & Misk, Misk, declined to comment. And Richard Coppola, an attorney at the firm Cullen Dyckman, based in 1 Battery Park Plaza, which is representing the church, also declined to comment.
