Trinity Church sells 245 Water Street for $4.75M, 61% below 2019
The deed recorded Oct. 8 prices the Seaport parcel $7.55M under what the church paid seven years earlier.
Trinity Church took a $7.55M loss on 245 Water Street, deeding the Seaport parcel for $4.75M seven years after paying $12.3M for it.
Why it matters
A landholder with one of the longest balance sheets in Manhattan could not get its 2019 price back, and the buyer is a fresh single-purpose entity, 245 Water Street Owner LLC, not a named operator. For a developer or broker pricing small Seaport sites, a 61% drop from a 2019 trade is the cleanest reset point on the block.
The sale is a loss, not a distress filing. Nothing in the deed says the church was forced, and we have not found a lender or lis pendens tied to the lot.
The numbers
The City Register records the 2026 deed at $4,750,000, dated Sept. 30 and recorded Oct. 8, on block 97, lot 55. The seller is the Rector, Church-Wardens and Vestrymen of Trinity. The buyer is 245 Water Street Owner LLC.
The 2019 deed into Trinity was dated Aug. 14, 2019 and recorded Aug. 27, 2019 at $12,300,000. The gap is $7,550,000, or 61.4%, across a hold of a little over seven years.
We did not pull a building area, so there is no price per square foot here. Trade coverage has called the building a two-family, which we have not confirmed from city records.
DOB NOW shows one alteration job at the address, M00285024-I1, filed Dec. 26, 2019 for a temporary mock-up scaffold with a $50,000 estimated cost. We found no newer filing on the lot at the time of our check.
What’s next
Watch for a new DOB filing from the buyer. A demolition, alteration or new-building job would show whether 245 Water Street Owner LLC is a developer repositioning the site or a holder waiting on the market. Any filing would carry a date we can measure against the Sept. 30 deed.
The parcel sits inside the Seaport Historic District, so exterior work would go through the Landmarks Preservation Commission. For the wider picture, see our New York market page and our earlier look at a Union Square rental sold $25M below its 2019 price.
On the record
What we checked ourselves, and where you can check it too.
- Public recordThe City Register shows the Rector, Church-Wardens and Vestrymen of Trinity deeded 245 Water Street (block 97, lot 55) to 245 Water Street Owner LLC for $4,750,000, dated Sept. 30, 2026 and recorded Oct. 8, 2026.View the record on a836-acris.nyc.gov
- Public recordThe 2019 deed into Trinity, dated Aug. 14, 2019 and recorded Aug. 27, 2019, carried $12,300,000, so the church sold for $7,550,000 less, or about 61%.View the record on a836-acris.nyc.gov
On the record
- Primary recordNYC Department of Finance (ACRIS)Deed, 245 Water Street, Manhattan, $4,750,000
- Primary recordNYC Department of Finance (ACRIS)Deed, 245 Water Street, Manhattan, $12,300,000 (2019)
- Primary recordNYC Open Data, ACRIS Real Property MasterACRIS Real Property Master dataset