Wells Hill was engaged by The Cathedral Church of St. John the Divine to assist in formulating and implementing a plan for the development of certain vacant areas on its 11.3-acre urban campus. This campus, known as the Close, is located in the Morningside Heights section of Manhattan. The initiative was part of the Cathedral’s strategy to preserve the existing buildings and open spaces on its grounds, to contribute to the ongoing revitalization of its immediate neighborhood, and to provide a steady source of funds to support its religious, educational, cultural and civic programs.

Wells Hill helped to identify those areas of the Close best suited for development — specifically, two non-contiguous sites on the northern and southeastern boundaries of the Close — and to develop a strategy that would enable the Cathedral to realize the value of the sites through long-term ground leases with third-party developers. The Cathedral required that the ultimate use of the to-be-developed sites be compatible with the Cathedral’s historic architectural qualities and the Cathedral’s overall mission.

Wells Hill managed a separate, discrete marketing process for each of the sites, drafting a request for proposals (RFP) for a targeted list of developers and negotiating with respondents to maximize their proposals.

Columbia University was selected as the developer and ground lessee for the 55,000 square foot northern site, which runs along 113th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive. The transaction was structured by Wells Hill and allows for the construction of institutional/academic space. Columbia has purchased a long-term option, which allows it to enter into a pre-negotiated 99-year ground lease with the Cathedral.

AvalonBay Communities was selected as the developer and ground lessee for the southeastern site and has entered into a 99-year ground lease with the Cathedral. AvalonBay has constructed a 300-unit residential rental building on the 32,000 square-foot site, which is located at the corner of 110th Street and Morningside Drive.

The rent derived from the Columbia option and AvalonBay ground lease has provided the Cathedral with the funds needed to help preserve the buildings and open spaces on the Close and support the Cathedral's programs. The AvalonBay development represents, as the Columbia development also will represent when built, an appropriate and restrained perimeter building design that is respectful of the Cathedral and the surrounding community.

Because both of these projects and their occupants will be long-term neighbors of the Cathedral, the leases are more than financial instruments. They are living documents that must serve as the basis for successful and non-intrusive living and working relationships, and Wells Hill remains actively engaged with the Cathedral in managing these relationships.