Sold for $575,000, Promised Ground-Floor Space, Given the Basement: A Brooklyn Church’s Development Deal Goes Wrong

• Charity Baptist Church bought the former Fox Savoy Theater in Crown Heights in 1969
• It sold the property to developer Realty Within Reach in 2012 for $575,000
• The contract promised 5,000 square feet on the ground floor plus 2,000 in the basement
• Building records showed the church’s sanctuary and hall placed in the cellar

A Brooklyn church that traded its building for space in a new development says it has been short-changed, Brownstoner reported in August 2017.

Charity Baptist Church bought the Fox Savoy Theater at 1515 Bedford Avenue in Crown Heights in 1969 and worshipped there for more than four decades. In 2012 it sold the property for $575,000 to developer Realty Within Reach, which demolished the old theatre for a new development.

Under the contract, the church was to receive 5,000 square feet of space on the ground floor of the new building, plus a further 2,000 square feet in the basement. According to the report, Buildings Department records instead showed the church’s sanctuary and fellowship hall located in the cellar, not on the first floor.

The church’s bishop told DNAinfo, as Brownstoner noted, that the congregation would sue if the developer did not honour the deal. The report did not include a response from the developer.

The case highlights the risk in land-for-space swaps, a common way for congregations with valuable sites but little cash to get a new home. The church gives up its land at a low price in return for a promise, and the value of that promise depends on exactly how the contract is written and how closely the church can monitor the plans as they move through the approval process. Once the old building is gone, a congregation has little leverage.

Jamaican churches approached by developers about swapping land for a new sanctuary or hall should insist on precise drawings, floor levels and square footage in the contract, penalties for changes, and an independent lawyer and quantity surveyor on their side. A handshake promise of “a new church” is not enough when the land is the congregation’s biggest asset.

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