NEW YORK CITY-In what's becoming something of a trend, a Washington Heights church is soliciting help from developers to convert its building into a mixed-use facility. Massey Knakal Realty Services has been retained exclusively to represent the Wadsworth Avenue Baptist Church for the development of its property at 206-212 Wadsworth Ave.

Located on the corner of Wadsworth Avenue and West 184th street in Washington Heights, the property's asking price is $8 million. The church has issued a request for proposal—with responses due by March 31—from a developer who will create a condominium interest in approximately 30,000 above grade square feet with additional below grade square footage and parking, plus an interest in the balance of the development to meet the operational needs of the church.

This additional interest can take the form of a fee interest in another condominium unit in the building, joint venture participation, or some other vehicle that will provide the church with a steady stream of income to pay for its expenses and support its programs.

"Like the church that is looking to redevelop in Downtown Brooklyn, you have a church sitting on extremely valuable land; values for development sites in Northern Manhattan are around $120 per buildable-square-foot and sometimes they're even higher," Massey Knakal VP of sales Robert Shapiro tells GlobeSt.com. "These buildings need repair and churches don't always have the funding to take care of that. This is a unique opportunity for Wadsworth Church to secure its future for the next 100-plus years."

The 13,381-square-foot church has a FAR for community facility use of 6.5 and the lot area is approximately 15,000 square feet. That gives the facility a maximum potential zoning floor area of approximately 97,500 square feet.

With the church taking roughly 30,000 square feet above grade for sanctuary and residential use, it leaves 67,500 for the developer. This does not include any cellar or below grade space in which the church intends to utilize 60,000 square feet for multipurpose use or parking. Some of that space likely will go toward a school or facility for after school programs, notes Shapiro.

The church probably won't have difficulty finding a population to draw on: demand for housing in the area is growing exponentially, he says. "Northern Manhattan is transforming faster than any section of the marketplace. It was the number market last year in terms increases both in dollar and transactional volume."

Developers may well flock to the area too, Shapiro suggests, thanks to favorable financial conditions. "Rents are pushing up and investors keep wanting to come in and bring buildings up to their former glory."

Now also is the time for builders to look Uptown because of land prices and availability, he notes. "We have seen appreciation of upwards of 50%. Development sites that were priced at $60 to $65 per square foot are now going for $90-plus. Very little land remains because it's being scooped up."