The Center for Fiction, an almost 200-year-old non-profit institution that's hosted writers of the likes of Mark Twain and Frederick Douglass, is preparing to sell off its Midtown headquarters, DNAinfo reports. Unlike a slew of other non-profits of late, the move from their 17 East 47th Street location is apparently motivated by the CFF's desire to be in a more bustling neighborhood and not by the prospect of receiving their ask of $18 million to fund the non-profit.
The Harlem-based non-profit Hale House is trying to sell of its 152 West 122nd Street townhouse to the tune of $2.495 million in an effort to take advantage of the surging market, and it's just one of many nonprofits doing so. Late last year, the nonprofit United Cerebral Palsy of New York City sold its East 23rd Street headquarters to Toll Brothers for $135 million, while God's Love We Deliver sold air rights to a neighboring development.
The CFF headquarters is currently owned on behalf of the non-profit by The Clinton Hall Association of the City of New York, who plans to sell the building to Sun Acre's LLC, a North Carolina-based company that owns the Met Foods at 486 Henry Street in Cobble Hill. The building's future use is yet to be determined. The Center for Fiction's move to a yet-to-be-identified downtown location will see the non-profit leave the white marble townhouse it erected in 1932.
· Center For Fiction Plans to Sell Headquarters For $18M [DNAinfo]
· Nonprofits With Sought-After Buildings Take Advantage of a Hot Market [NYT]
Photo via Property Shark