Nonprofit real estate trends to watch in 2019

A new community fund has just released its first round of grants. A group of businesses that includes Google, Related Companies, and Wells Fargo launched the West Side Community Fund last year to benefit the Chelsea/Hell’s Kitchen area in Manhattan. The Villager reports that about 28 organizations in the area received a total of $226,628 in grants on March 6. The awards ranged in amounts from $2,500 to $30,000.

The New York Times has 17 questions for Sister Paulette LoMonaco. The longtime head of Good Shepherd Services, who has seen a lot in her 50 years of work in New York City child welfare, reflects on lessons learned over the years in a wide-ranging interview. She will retire from her position at the end of this year.

“When we first moved into Park Slope in 1972, Park Slope was an unsafe neighborhood,” she said in her interview with the Times. “It had the highest number of kids that were being removed from their homes and put into foster care. That’s why we put a family counseling program there. Today you can’t get real estate there.”

"I remember for the first time when more children were in preventive services than were in foster care. That was a monumental shift. The pendulum has swung from removal to keeping families together." https://t.co/em7J5TwHxD

— GoodShepherdNYC (@GoodShepherdNYC) March 16, 2019

The Mayor's Fund to Advance New York City is looking for some financial auditing help. The city-affiliated nonprofit is open to proposals from accounting forms for its yearly audited financial statements, according to the City Record. The Urban Justice Center has received a $3.89 million contract from the city Department of Social Services for anti-eviction services. The Metropolitan New York Coordinating Council On Jewish Poverty will provide single-room occupancy housing for homeless adults, per a $656,214 contract with the agency.

The Nonprofit Coordinating Committee of New York is accepting applications for its 2019 Nonprofit Excellence Awards. The competition provides nonprofits with top-to-bottom expert assessments of their organizations. Cash prizes and scholarships to Columbia Business School leadership programs are also available. The deadline to apply is Wednesday, April 24. More information is here.

A new report from Cushman Wakefield examines the 2018 real estate activity by nonprofits. The report is a bit dense overall for outsiders but does include a rundown of big nonprofit moves, including Breaking Ground’s $170 million purchase of 90 Sand Street in Brooklyn and the 30-year lease secured by Community Preservation Corporation in midtown Manhattan.

• Organizations are bargain hunting in areas like Long Island City, Harlem, downtown Brooklyn, and increasingly in Sunset Park/Industry City.
• Religious organizations continue to sell or lease real estate to raise money, especially if their congregations have been declining in recent years.
• Public-sector organizations are trying to stay in Manhattan.