Housing venture roils Union Seminary
A luxury housing construction project in the works at Union Theological Seminary could potentially save the school’s Upper Manhattan campus by raising more than $100 million for urgently needed renovations and repairs.
But supporters say it’s a risky venture with no guarantees of success. And opposition is mounting from stakeholders who worry that the institution, renowned for solidarity with society’s poor and marginalized, could lose its soul in the process.
At issue is a plan to build condominiums on half of Union’s two-block campus in the Morningside Heights neighborhood. Faculty would live on lower floors, while the two-, three-, and four-bedroom units above the eighth floor would sell at market rates, ranging from nearly $2 million to $5 million.
