C of E loses $78M in New York real estate deal

By Daniel Burke

The Church of England stands to lose about US$78 million in a New York real estate investment gone sour. The 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, Religion News Service reports. 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 British pounds) in 2007, before real estate values in New York and elsewhere began to plummet.

Ben Wilson, a senior media officer for the Church of England, told Ecumenical News Service that the New York investment represents less than 1 percent of the church's assets, which are valued at some $6.4 billion. –ENS