Church of England loses $78 million in sour New York real estate deal

The Church of England will lose about $78 million in a New York real estate investment gone sour, according to Episcopal News Service (ENS). The Anglican church’s investment was part of a record-setting $5.4 billion deal put together in 2006 by two New York-based firms to buy two massive apartment complexes in Manhattan.

After defaulting on loan payments, the firms will cede the downtown properties — Stuyvesant Town and Peter Cooper Village — to its lenders.

The Church of England, the mother church of the Anglican Communion, the world’s third-largest Christian denomination, invested about $78 million (40 million pounds) in 2007, before real estate values in New York and elsewhere began to plummet.

Ben Wilson, a senior media office for the Church of England told ENS that the New York investment represents less than 1 percent of the church’s assets, which are valued at some $6.4 billion, according to ENS. (RNS)