Episcopal HQ Vacated by E. 42nd St. Chaos Could Become Housing
Earlier this summer, The Episcopal Church announced that it was exploring the sale or lease of its national headquarters on Second Avenue, and would consider selling to an affordable housing developer. Plans got more complicated after July 7.
| 20 Jul 2026 | 01:24
The national HQ of the Episcopal Church at 815 Second Ave. said last month it is exploring the sale or lease of the 14-story building. (
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The Building Department ordered a full vacate of the building on July 7 after steel beams buckled in the nearby former Pfizer HQ at 235 E. 42nd St. (
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A worker stands outside the Episcopal HQ at 815 Second Ave. between East 42nd St. and East. 43rd Street on July 17. The building was still facing a full vacate order after beams buckeled inside nearby 235 E. 42nd St. in the former HQ of Pfizer. (
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The Church Center was given a full vacate order on July 7, when an office-to-residential conversion nearby at 235 E. 42nd St. nearly collapsed due to faulty support beams. The DOB shored up the building with additional beams but still had a full or partial vacate order on five nearby buildings. (
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The national headquarters of the Episcopal Church remains in the midst of a marketing process that could see it transformed into affordable housing, after the Church announced last month that it is exploring the sale or lease of the property.
Yet any marketing efforts were temporarily interrupted on July 7, due to the chaos that followed the bucking of support beams inside 235 E. 42nd St. This caused the DOB to issue a full vacate order for several nearby buildings, including the headquarters.
The Church Center, as the building is formally known, is located at 815 Second Avenue—just around the corner from the former Pfizer headquarters on E. 42nd Street,
The developer MetroLoft is behind the now-infamous project to transform the longtime office building into a residential tower (otherwise known as an office-to-residential conversion), a process that included adding new floors to the preexisting 22-story building.
New reporting by the New York Times has revealed that I-beams meant to hold up this extra weight probably not properly reinforced, with the correct reinforcement process outlined in Department of Buildings project drawings obtained by a records request.
The DOB is investigating the project, which has since been paused and stabilized, and MetroLoft faces a criminal investigation by the Manhattan District Attorney’s office.
Meanwhile, the marketing of the Church Center—which was given a full vacate order on July 7—was announced last month by Presiding Bishop Sean Rowe; the Church’s Executive Council, which a release noted had been meeting in the Episcopal Diocese of Puerto Rico, had reportedly been consulted on the matter.
The marketing process is being led by Denham Wolf Real Estate Services, a firm that the Church says specializes in serving nonprofits, with “extensive” experience in working with faith institutions.
It joins a long list of religious institutions in the city that are seeking to monetize buildings in their real estate portfolios. The Roman Catholic Archdiocese of New York sold off its First Ave. HQ for over $100 million. And on the Upper West Side, the dwindling congregation that owns the West Park Presbyterian Church said it cannot afford repairs and has been seeking to sell to a developer for $30 million for years. Preservationists and non-profit groups that used the building for meetings are battling to save the landmarked church.
No potential sale figure has been disclosed for Episcopal HQ but mid-town Manhattan real estate would likely command a multi-million dollar price.
A decision on what the marketing process would lead to was “months” away, according to Rowe, although the Church is reportedly prioritizing handing off the long-term ground lease of the Church Center to a “group” that would redevelop the building. Affordable housing was explicitly cited as one such potential form of redevelopment.
“We’ve done a detailed analysis about the best use of the building, with consultants and architects,” Chief Financial Officer Chris Lacovara said in a statement at the time. ““We occupy a fraction of the Church Center space now, and the conclusion is that we don’t need to own and occupy a building in midtown Manhattan.”
“Dioceses and congregations throughout The Episcopal Church are looking at real estate as a missional asset, and we need to think about the Church Center in the same way,” Lacovara added. He expressed hope that the marketing process would lead to others “thinking carefully” about similar deals.
The 12-story Church Center was built in 1963, at a cost of $4 million. It was three times bigger than the Church Missions House on Park Avenue, the previous headquarters of the Church.and was selected due to its capacity to house office space for 500 people.
Now, the Church occupies less than half the space as broader membership has dwindled over the decades. The Episcopal Church said more of its membership in areas outside New York have been growing while NYC membership declines.
Denham Wolf Real Estate Services did not reply to a request for comment by Our Town.