Van Cortlandt Jewish Center settles on buyer after years of negotiations

After years of back and forth and much lamenting by locals, the Van Cortlandt Jewish Center has sold 3880 Sedgwick Avenue to Barone Management for $4 million.

The lease agreement went into effect April 1.

The center took a vote amongst its members – 32 to 10 -- and there was much he-said/she-said on both sides. Members claimed they didn’t see the contract before voting, while the center’s president Stuart Harris said, “no one asked.”

“I just want to know if we’re getting a fair deal,” Louise Salant said, life-long member who was grandfathered in by her parent’s long-term membership. “Once the contract is finalized, it should be the fiduciary duty of the chair to present the contract to the membership. Otherwise, one could say that the membership has voted to approve a contract they have not seen.”

According to the NYC Department of Finance, an estimated market value for 2024-2025 was listed at nearly $7 million.

But according to Harris, the amount the center sold for was the best deal they could get.

Plans for the new property, with an unknown completion date, include holding temporary space for the South Bronx Classical Charter School network. The school’s permanent home at Kingsbridge Terrace is expected to be completed in two to three years, but while it inhabits 3880 Sedgwick Ave., it displaces the Mosholu Montefiore Community Center’s childcare facility. Several requests for comment from the community center went unanswered.

While a new 5,000-square-foot synagogue will be built along Stevenson Avenue, the old one will remain, “ensuring the congregation has a place of worship at all times.”

The Press toured the space and noticed leaks and ceilings in disrepair, along with carpeting which, “probably hasn’t been replaced since this place opened,” Harris said while walking through the center, pointing out damage in the infrastructure.

The Center was founded in 1927 in an apartment building, moved to a converted mansion on Gouverneur Avenue in 1946 and landed at its current home on Sedgwick Avenue in 1965. It once saw membership upwards of 600 individuals, but that number plummeted to well below 100, attributing to lack of funding and resources.

The NYC Department of Buildings website cited a Class 1 violation at 3880 Sedgwick Ave., defined as “immediately hazardous” and “demanding immediate action.” The website also stated civil penalties are due on the building.

“We just don’t have the money to fix it,” Harris added.

 Before selling to Barone Management, Van Cortlandt Jewish Center was in talks with Innovative Development and Construction, who purchased a good chunk of land in the neighborhood. Plots include 3874 Sedgwick Ave. where the Van Cortlandt branch of the New York Public Library once stood and 67 Stevenson Place, former home of the Denishawn House, listed on the city’s LGBT historic sites project. Both are now literal dust in the wind as construction is underway.

“They are cutting down mature trees, the whole area is being destroyed, very sad,” Gary Axelbank told The Press. The T.V. personality who hosts Bronx Buzz and lives across from the Jewish Center, has long advocated, along with the community board and members, for a sustainable and fair developer of the area.

Innovative Development sat in on several community board 8 meetings where they faced scrupulous scolding by the chair of the board’s land use committee, Charles Moerdler for their illegal removal of tress within the Special Natural Area District confines.

“Trees are being demolished and typography is being changed without any DOB authorization,” he said at a meeting last December. “This is the first time in many years that I’ve been on this board, in which [property contractors and owners] are violating the building code by constructing and demolishing, without a Department of Buildings permit or filing.”

Hopes are Barone management meets the expectation of its residents as it is touted as a company specializing in the development of school buildings.

“I hope the new synagogue, if built, would be able and willing to include community-based Jewish organizations like JASA,” added Salant.

The Jewish Association for Serving the Aging was once housed at the center, but against popular belief, the Jewish Association which relocated to 231^st Street said they moved on their own accord.

Teh Attorney General's office has yet to approve of the final sale before Barone Managaement canbreak ground.