A long-vacant Fort Greene church is about to get a towering new neighbor on its own roof. The Landmarks Preservation Commission last Tuesday signed off on a revised 24-story rental building that will rise above the shell of the Hanson Place Central United Methodist Church, capping months of hearings, community blowback and design revisions. Opponents warned that any high-rise addition could dwarf the historic sanctuary and cut into prized views of the neighboring Williamsburgh Savings Bank Tower.
According to Brooklyn Eagle, commissioners granted approval after the development team scaled back an earlier 27-story scheme, shaving roughly 30 feet off the height and agreeing to restore the church facades along St. Felix Street and Hanson Place. The Eagle reported that the vote took place on Tuesday and that the new residential tower will be constructed atop the landmarked structure at 144 St. Felix Street. The redesign ultimately persuaded enough commissioners once architects clarified how the upper floors would step away from key public sightlines.
The plan and the players
Developer Strekte, working with architects FXCollaborative and ADP Architects, is steering a project that was first floated as a roughly 240-unit tower with about 60 permanently affordable apartments, according to Commercial Observer. The design team told commissioners that repairing and reopening the aging church without adding a significant amount of new floor area would not pencil out financially, Brownstoner reported. During the public review, commissioners pressed the architects to refine how the contemporary tower meets the original neo-Gothic structure and to make the transition read as more deliberate than decorative.
Neighbors split over preservation and housing
Testimony from the neighborhood was sharply divided. Some residents and local organizations backed the plan as a way to stabilize a long-empty building and add housing near multiple transit lines. Others blasted the proposal as facadism that would undermine the Brooklyn Academy of Music Historic District. The mixed reactions extended to the commission itself. Commissioner Frank Mahan described the design as "simultaneously bold and nuanced," according to Brooklyn Paper. By statute the LPC is supposed to focus on architectural appropriateness, not construction budgets or citywide housing needs, which shaped how members weighed the financial arguments for building up.
What comes next
With Landmarks approval in hand, the developers can now turn to detailed Department of Buildings filings and longer-term financing work before any shovels hit the ground. A timetable for permits and construction has not yet been made public. Strekte previously landed a $25.3 million refinancing loan tied to the project in January, according to Commercial Observer. Neighbors and advocacy groups that testified during the hearings say they plan to scrutinize each upcoming permit as the design moves from renderings to reality.
A troubled church with a checkered recent history
The Hanson Place church opened in 1931 and has sat empty since 2019. The congregation sold the property in early 2024 to an LLC backed by Watermark Capital for about $15 million, 6sqft reported. Supporters of the project argue that adaptive reuse will finally bring in the money needed to repair the church’s terra-cotta ornament and stained glass. Critics counter that the new high-rise will chip away at historic fabric in the name of density. The LPC vote removed a major procedural hurdle, but it also set up what is likely to be a tense permitting and design chapter as Fort Greene watches to see exactly how a 24-story "roommate" will sit on top of a 1930s landmark.
