Brooklyn church buys $20.6M Mill Basin development site

MILL BASIN — A BROOKLYN CHURCH has gone against a citywide trend of houses of worship selling off real estate, purchasing a large Mill Basin development site for $20.6 million, according to city records and Crain’s New York.

Salvation Church of God, located at 5601 Ave. N in Flatlands, bought two adjacent Mill Basin lots at 6065 and 6075 Strickland Ave., totaling roughly 116,000 square feet. The deed, recorded Monday, lists Pastor Malory Laurent as the signatory for the buyer.

The site, near East 59th Street and Mayfair Drive South along Jamaica Bay, is largely vacant aside from a one-story industrial building housing a vehicle repair shop.

The church paid $5 million for its current Flatlands property in 2019. Its plans for the newly acquired site remain unclear, and no construction permits have been filed.

The purchase contrasts with recent sales of church properties citywide that are being redeveloped into housing.

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