The Department of City Planning is expected to weigh in on the construction of a new mixed-use building at 312 Coney Island Avenue in the historic Windsor Terrace section of Brooklyn. Designed by FXCollaborative, the proposed development measures 387,000 gross square feet and includes residential area, a church, a small school, and commercial retail.
Full demolition permits have been filed for the three-story building at 45 East 126th Street, in Harlem, along with adjacent lots 1975 and 1981 Madison Avenue. Owned by Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church, the three buildings were built at separate times, but some of the construction dates back to 1905 according to NYC Planning records. The Metropolitan Community United Methodist Church was founded in 1942 yet the edifice it currently occupies was built from 1869-71, for St. James Methodist Episcopal Church of Harlem. The Neo-Gothic building features a noble bell tower and vaulted interior.
A church in Far Rockaway, Queens, is about to be razed to make way for a mixed-use building. Permits for an eight-story structure have been submitted for 1414 Central Avenue, six blocks away from the Far Rockaway-Mott Avenue Subway station, at the end of the A train. Kingspoint Heights Development is the developer, and the project would be built on the site of the Community Church–the Nazarene.
The May 1 celebration of Eastern Orthodox Easter was marred by the tragic fire at the Serbian Orthodox Cathedral of St. Sava at 15 West 25th Street, which reduced the landmark building to a charred stone shell. Aside from minor smoke inhalation by the church caretaker, no one was injured in the four-alarm blaze. The same cannot be said for the church building itself, which was reduced to a charred ruin.
Churches and synagogues throughout the five boroughs may be closing and leasing out their property to developers, but one Evangelical church in Baychester, near the northern edge of the Bronx, is building a new three-story community facility and sanctuary at 1915 Bartow Avenue.