Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By richards on January 22, 2015

Its not exactly money lenders in the temple, but a century-old East Village synagogue is being restored to its original glory thanks to a deal to let a developer build luxury condos on the upper floors.

The Adas Yisroel Anshe Mezritch Synagogue on E. Sixth St., which narrowly avoided demolition in 2012, will remain on the ground floor following the multimillion-dollar gut renovation while three luxe apartments, including one 11-foot penthouse addition, will be built upstairs.

The condos are slated to hit the market this fall.

The synagogue, which shuttered six months ago, was founded by Polish immigrants from Mezritch in 1910 and is the last of its kind in the formerly Jewish shtetl on the Lower East Side.

The 22-foot-wide Gothic building has faded, but still has an elaborate neoclassical facade featuring some religious iconography, including an intricate stained glass window picturing the Star of David.

The restoration, said developer Jody Kriss of East River Partners, means a lot to the community though there were some early doubters.

Back when we started the construction, people would curse me out, Kriss added. But when they found out that we were preserving the synagogue, and not demolishing it, they wanted to shake my hand, instead.

East River Partners paid the synagogue $1.2 million to lease the upstairs space for 99 years and the developer is also planning to pay an annual maintenance fee to keep the shul running for 200 more years. All religious artifacts were placed in storage and will be returned when the new facility is ready for the small congregation of just 25 families.

Kriss declined to talk about prices for the apartments but the average price tag for an East Village condo is $2 million, or $1,514 per square foot, according to listings website CityRealty.

The synagogue has long been in a state of disrepair, with crumbling brickwork and broken windows. The tiny congregation would secure the doors with rope, since the locks were broken. The synagogues longtime leader, Rabbi Pesach Ackerman, who spearheaded the deal with Kriss, died last year before he could see the conversion realized.

Excerpt from:

NYC temple gets new lease on life thanks to condo plan

Category: Synagogue
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