A Romanesque Revival church that has anchored the corner of Schermerhorn Street and Third Avenue since 1893 is about to disappear. Court filings in Kings County show developers Tankhouse and Lonicera Partners have struck a deal to buy the property at 360 Schermerhorn Street for $28.25 million, with plans to tear down the historic structure and build new residential housing on the site.
The filings, reviewed by Traded, put the price at roughly $195 per buildable square foot across the site's 145,000 buildable square feet. According to the Brooklyn Eagle, the purchase price was previously reported at around $28 million by Crain's New York Business, and the seller is a religious corporation whose petition to sell was filed in state Supreme Court in Kings County last week. Rev. Eddie Colón, pastor of Next Step Community Church, signed the purchase contract on behalf of the congregation, the Eagle reports.
Tankhouse founders Sam Alison-Mayne and Sebastian Mendez are pursuing the acquisition through an entity called 360 SSP Owner LLC, according to PincusCo. Tankhouse, based in Dumbo, has previously built a 130-foot, 27-unit condominium tower at 150 Lawrence Street in Downtown Brooklyn, per New York YIMBY. Its partner on this deal, Lonicera Partners, is based in Downtown Brooklyn and has separately teamed with Rabina on a planned 38-story, 295-unit tower at 55 Willoughby Street spanning 268,000 square feet, YIMBY notes. Neither developer has announced specific plans for what will replace the Schermerhorn Street church, per the Eagle's reporting.
A Congregation With Roots Back to 1823
The congregation now known as Next Step Community Church traces its history back to 1823, when it originally stood on Pearl Street, according to the Eagle. Over the decades it became First Baptist Church of Pierrepont Street before eventually being known simply as Baptist Temple. Sanctuary walls at 360 Schermerhorn Street have taken more than one hit over the years: the congregation suffered a fire in 1917 after moving into the building, and a devastating 2010 fire destroyed the Baptist Temple sanctuary altogether.
The building was still significant enough architecturally to be listed on the National Register of Historic Places, and the Eagle reports the congregation reorganized at one point as Recovery House of Worship. In 2022, the New York Landmarks Conservancy awarded the church a Sacred Sites grant, according to the Eagle's reporting. Designed by architecture firms Weary & Kramer and Dodge & Morrison, the 1893–1894 structure features a brownstone base, a textured brick exterior, a large rose window, and three corner towers, according to background compiled on Wikipedia.
Why the Sale Needs State Sign-Off
Because the seller is a religious corporation, the deal cannot simply close on a handshake. Under New York Not-for-Profit Corporation Law §§ 510–511 and Religious Corporations Law § 12, religious entities disposing of essentially all of their real property must secure approval from both a state court and the Attorney General's Charities Bureau, according to Federman Steifman LLP. That statutory review exists to confirm the price is fair and that the sale still serves the congregation's charitable mission. The Eagle reports the Office of Attorney General Letitia James must sign off before the sale can proceed.
This is not the first time the Schermerhorn Street church has been eyed for redevelopment. Marketing materials from 2014, when the property was listed for $20 million, already touted 100,000 square feet of potential development rights, whether through demolition or by building a tower atop the existing structure, according to DNAinfo. That earlier reporting placed the Baptist Temple within a much longer pattern across Brooklyn, where congregations facing costly repairs and shrinking attendance have sold historic houses of worship to residential developers, including prior sales in Fort Greene and Clinton Hill.
A Site Facing a Changed Skyline
The church sits directly across the street from the block-long Alloy Block development, formerly known as 80 Flatbush, where high-rise construction has already stirred debate over shifting density along the Boerum Hill and Downtown Brooklyn border. Given that backdrop, any residential plans that eventually emerge for 360 Schermerhorn Street will likely draw scrutiny from neighborhood groups watching the corridor's zoning and historic character.
The deal also lands amid a busy stretch for Boerum Hill real estate. Earlier this month, Edison Properties sold a nearby development site at 55 Smith Street for $58.1 million to CW Realty, which plans a 99-unit residential building there, PincusCo reported. Together the two transactions point to strong investor appetite for development parcels in the neighborhood.
Open questions remain about what comes next for Next Step Community Church itself. It is not yet known where the congregation plans to re-establish a permanent home once the sale closes, nor whether the eventual residential building will include any affordable units or community space. A similar pattern played out in Harlem, where another Baptist Temple congregation recently sold its sanctuary for new housing, with that deal including a new ground-floor church facility inside the replacement building.
