HARLEM — Developers want to demolish a 133rd Street building that was once home to a Pentecostal church and replace it with an 11-story mixed-use structure that would include a medical office, records show.
Developer Levi Balkany filed demolition permits with the city on Jan. 13. He filed permits for the 11-story structure on Dec. 1.
The new building is designed to be 105 feet tall and include 46 apartments and a 2,600-square-foot medical office, according to Balkany’s application.
Morning Star Pentecostal Church was a previous owner of the building, records show. They were slapped with a vacate order in 2012 because the rear wall of the building was in danger of falling. Since then, the church received violations in February 2015 for working without a permit and not maintaining the building.
The church has since relocated to another building on Edgecombe Avenue, according to a flier in front of the building on 133rd Street.
Morning Star church officials could not be reached for comment. A phone number listed on the relocation flier has been disconnected.
There is no clear timeline for when the building would be demolished or when construction on the new project would begin.
The Department of Buildings rejected Balkany’s new building application on Dec. 16 because of “incomplete drawings,” records show.
