The Church of the Ascension (127 Kent Street) is one of Greenpoint’s oldest buildings, but its Parish Hall (120 Java Street) will soon find new life as residences. The Church sold the Parish Hall, and air rights for the building, in July 2015 for over 4 million dollars.
The Parish Hall is not an original part of the church, but it still has significant history in the neighborhood, serving as a shelter during Hurricane Sandy, and as a headquarters in the Occupy Sandy relief effort. In the transition to apartments, the building on Java Street will triple in size and gain two stories, growing to accommodate 18 units. Each apartment will be approximately 1,300 sqft, and the building will offer “skyline views” from the roof.
The developers behind the project, SL Development, feel their design is a work of “adaptive reuse” because the punch windows they propose “fit the floor plates without demolishing the facade.” Further, YIMBY reports, “the four brick columns will remain, as well as the remnants of the arched brick near the top of the facade.”
Construction is underway in the erstwhile parish hall, but no date of completion has been set.