Brooklyn Church Closes on Affordable Housing Development
The Calvary Nigerian Church in Brooklyn is the beneficiary of a ground lease which closed yesterday between, its parent body, the Northeastern Conference Corporation of Seventh-day Adventists, and the 811 Lexington Limited Partnership to build a multi-family affordable housing project. The 64 units will provide housing for senior citizens on land owned by the congregation and situated across the street from their church building. Construction is expected to begin this summer.
The terms of the agreement stipulate that the parties have entered into a 99-year ground lease in which the church will receive yearly payments from the developer aggregating to a total of $39.2 million during the term of the lease. At the end of the lease, the entire property will revert to the church. In the meantime, the church retains use of 20 underground parking spaces in the new building for the duration of the contract. Pastor Mark Brathwaite and local Elder David Awoyomi have spearheaded the four-year negotiation on behalf of the Calvary church. They aimed for a project that would benefit the church while bring affordable housing to the community.
This is the third ground lease entered into by the conference, on behalf of local churches during a two-year period. The current Conference Administration implemented this process to provide revenue streams to local congregations from previously underutilized assets. The Conference retains ten percent of the proceeds in each project for investment in the NEC Capital Development Endowment which in turn generates income to assist NEC congregations with acquisition and renovation projects.
This article was provided by Daniel Honore and Oswald Euell from the Northeastern Conference.
Image courtesy of Northeastern Conference.
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