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Realtor Deanna Dal Pos stands on the altar inside the vast open space of the former St. Patrick’s Church on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, on Sixth Ave. in Troy, N.Y. The property is to be put up for auction.
Sanctuary room to the side of the altar inside the former St. Patrick’s Church on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, on Sixth Ave. in Troy, N.Y. The property is to be put up for auction.
Sanctuary room to the side of the altar inside the former St. Patrick’s Church on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, on Sixth Ave. in Troy, N.Y. The property is to be put up for auction.
Sanctuary room to the side of the altar inside the former St. Patrick’s Church on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, on Sixth Ave. in Troy, N.Y. The property is to be put up for auction.
Sanctuary room to the side of the altar inside the former St. Patrick’s Church on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, on Sixth Ave. in Troy, N.Y. The property is to be put up for auction.
Ceiling above the altar inside the former St. Patrick’s Church on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, on Sixth Ave. in Troy, N.Y. The property is to be put up for auction.
Sanctuary room to the side of the altar inside the former St. Patrick’s Church on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, on Sixth Ave. in Troy, N.Y. The property is to be put up for auction.
Artifacts left on the altar inside the former St. Patrick’s Church on Thursday, Nov. 17, 2022, on Sixth Ave. in Troy, N.Y. The property is to be put up for auction.
TROY — For generations, the former St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic church on Sixth Avenue was an invaluable part of life in the city’s North Central neighborhood. But on the city’s dispassionate assessment roles, analysts pegged the market value of the building at $3.7 million when the parish closed in 2010.
Twelve years later, the 14,416-square-foot building with 13 historic bells, soaring twin bell towers and 56-foot-high ceilings at 3029 Sixth Ave. will be up for worldwide auction from Dec. 12-15.
Bidding will open at $1. If it sells, the structure, it seems, is unlikely to fetch an amount anywhere near the value once placed on it by the city.
The church has water damage and has been stripped bare. Its pews, statues and other furnishings have been removed, a common practice of the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany, which offers the fixtures to its parishes and then sells what isn’t claimed.
“The church is solid. Someone with the resources and vision can turn it into a showcase place,” Deanna Dal Pos of the Albany real estate firm NAI Platform said the ideal buyer would have an impact on the historic 110-year-old building and the surrounding neighborhood.
The building’s interior bears scars of water damage from broken windows. Some water may have entered through the roof where copper had been stripped away by vandals.
The church’s significance caught the attention of potential bidders from around the nation when it was first listed over the summer, Dal Pos said. As a result, Dal Pos said she turned to Ten-X, which describes itself as the “world’s largest, online commercial real estate exchange.”
“That is going to get us some traction around the world,” Dal Pos said.
The promotion of St. Patrick’s by Ten-X is helping to draw more interest from potential bidders not just in the U.S. but from countries in Europe, Asia and South America, Dal Pos said. The information about the former church building had drawn the attention of nearly 160,000 people online. The building, which city records say sits on a 0.43-acre parcel, now has a market value of $197,368 or 5 percent of what the city said it was worth in 2010. The edifice is currently owned by St. Patrick LLC of Cohoes.
What catches the eye of potential bidders besides the solid construction is the wide-open spaces inside the church, Dal Pos said. What also may lure them is that the structure is located in an opportunity zone which provides tax breaks for a developer.
“The beauty of it is it’s all open space,” said Dal Pos, standing on what was the altar at the building’s west end and looking east to where the exterior gothic façade at the entrance from Sixth Avenue is located, 142 feet away. The church is 71 feet wide.
St. Patrick’s parish was established in 1872 when it was carved from St. Peter’s parish south of Hoosick Street. That parish also was shuttered as part of the diocese’s “Called to be Church” initiative that consolidated the old urban parishes. Thirty-three of 190 worship sites were closed reflecting changing demographics.
St. Patrick’s originally served an Irish-American neighborhood when it was founded. North Central now has the city’s most diverse population.
“St. Patrick’s was very important to the community,” said Kathy Sheehan, acting executive director of the Hart Cluett Museum and historian for the city of Troy and Rensselaer County.
“They had a food pantry. They had the school. The church was an integral part of the North Central neighborhood. I was appalled when the Roman Catholic Diocese of Albany closed the church because it was such an important part of the North Central neighborhood,” Sheehan said.
An important part of the church that remains is its 12-bell chime made by the Meneely Bell Company of Troy and installed in 1915. The 13th bell is the large 14,744-pound Jones Bell that came from the original St. Patrick’s church building. The name is drawn from the foundry that cast it in 1876 in Troy.
Kenneth C. Crowe II covers Rensselaer County for the Times Union. He writes about Troy, US Census, northeastern Albany County and whatever else comes up. Screenwriting is a fascination. You can reach him at kcrowe@timesunion.com.
St. Patrick's church building in Troy heads to online auction – Times Union
