By:  Hellen Zaboulani

A historic church dating back to 1869 will have its site converted into a posh apartment building.

As reported by Crain’s NY, plans have been filed for the site at 340 W. 53rd St., between Eighth and Ninth avenues, which has been the home of the first Black Roman Catholic church north of the Mason-Dixon line.  The Department of Buildings recently received plans for a project at the Hell’s Kitchen site  to allow a seven-story building to be erected, with 10 residential units.  The planned 66-foot tall building will span roughly 21,500 square feet in all, and the ground floor will include community facility space. The plans also call for an enlargement of the mezzanine and cellar.  Kutnicki Bernstein Architects is the architect on file for the project.

The Archdiocese of New York had sold the property at 338-342 W. 53rd St. this past March to The JMM Charitable Foundation for $16 million, per property records.  JMM is a Los Angeles based charitable organization led by billionaire philanthropist Shirley Wang.  Wang is the CEO of Plastpro, a fiberglass door manufacturer.

The Church itself will remain a church and undergo a full renovation, bringing it up to current city building codes and assuring ADA-compliance, said Kutnicki Bernstein Architects.  Per Crain’s, the site housed the north’s first Black congregation starting in the late 1890s, when the parishioners moved to the Hell’s Kitchen property from the St. Benedict the Moor in Greenwich Village.  In 2007, the congregation had merged with the Church of the Sacred Heart of Jesus which was on West 51st Street.  By 2017, the Archdiocese deconsecrated the West 53rd Street building, allowing for it to later be sold, as first reported by DNAinfo.  There are no plans to reopen the parish, and the new project’s planned community space is not affiliated with the church, according to Archdiocese spokesman Joseph Zwilling.

The JMM Charitable Foundation had about $120 million in assets at the end of 2021, its tax filings show. JMM had been founded by Wang’s husband, Taiwanese billionaire Walter Wang. Mr. Wang, was one of the wealthiest persons in Taiwan till his death in 2008, having founded the plastics and petrochemicals conglomerate Formosa Plastics Group.

The philanthropic organization benefits a wide range of international causes ranging from education to healthcare, social and immigration issues, anti-drug campaigns, AIDS research, reducing poverty in Africa, as well as efforts to raise cultural awareness.  The Wangs have received numerous honors and awards related to their charity, including the China Institute’s Blue Cloud Award and the Philanthropy Award from the Asia Society in 2016, and the Anti-Defamation League’s Humanitarian Award in 2018. Forbes had estimated the family’s net worth to be about $5.4 billion in 2017.

As New York City struggles with a housing shortage, Churches are one component in Mayor Eric Adams’ plan to increase residential construction. The former site of St. Ambrose’s Church, also in Hell’s Kitchen, has plans to be converted into a residential building with about 71 units.

Crain’s was not immediately able to reach representatives for JMM for comment.