The former St. Brigid School building at 185 E. Seventh St., sitting right along the southeast corner of Tompkins Square Park, is now in contract for $35 million with a luxury developer. The deal would mark the latest chapter for a property that has cycled from Catholic classrooms to a city asylum-seeker intake site to a glossy real estate listing in just a few years.
According to Crain's New York, Quinlan Development Group is in contract to buy the former school site at East Seventh Street and Avenue B. The building sits at the corner of East Seventh Street and Avenue B, directly adjacent to Tompkins Square Park, according to a listing from avisonyoung.us, which is marketing the property as exclusive agent.
What Would Stay, What Would Go
Importantly, the proposed sale does not include St. Brigid's Church or its rectory, which sit next door to the school building, per reporting from Our Town. The marketing materials for the site envision an 11-story luxury condominium rising where the school once stood, the outlet reports. That potential scale is significant for a neighborhood defined largely by its older, lower-rise tenement and rowhouse stock.
Per the same Our Town account, the site could support roughly 71,000 square feet of residential space as currently zoned, or as much as 94,000 square feet if a developer takes advantage of a city law allowing taller buildings in exchange for devoting a portion of the project to affordable housing. The development team plans to build more than 500 affordable units.
From Classrooms to Closed Doors
St. Brigid School shut down at the end of the 2019 school year, the same outlet notes. After the classrooms went quiet, the building was used for another purpose until June 2025. The property has since been pitched as a premier development opportunity bordering Tompkins Square Park, as EV Grieve reported when the listing first surfaced.
The St. Brigid closure fits into a broader pattern across the archdiocese. The Archdiocese of New York has relied on an ongoing School Viability Study to evaluate which Catholic schools remain sustainable, according to the Archdiocese of New York. A number of schools were slated to close at the end of the 2024-25 academic year, with the archdiocese pledging support to help affected families and educators transition to other Catholic schools.
Other Catholic Sites Have Sold For More
The $35 million figure for the St. Brigid site lands well below recent comparable deals elsewhere in the city. Rockefeller Group and Atlas Capital Group acquired 200 West 97th Street for $96 million, planning to redevelop underused portions of that property into apartments while preserving the existing church and rectory, Commercial Observer reported. That project is expected to use the city's 485x tax abatement, which requires a quarter of the resulting units to be affordable.
Commercial Observer also reported that a school and rectory at 331-341 West 25th Street sold to Timber Equities for $48 million in January 2025. Figures for a separate East Village Catholic property are disputed: Commercial Observer reported that Spatial Equity and nonprofit developer Community Access paid between $58 million and $68 million for 181 Avenue D in mid-2024 to build roughly 570 housing units, while Our Town reported that the archdiocese sold the former St. Emeric school and church site at the same address for $58 million in 2024 as part of a planned affordable-housing project.
