Nonprofit organizations are among the largest owners of real estate in New York. Many such organizations are now seizing the opportunity to gain significant profits by selling property and air rights.

“It’s not surprising that the nonprofit community, which typically is real estate rich and cash poor, is taking advantage of the current real estate market,” the chairman of Massey Knakal Realty Services, Robert Knakal, said. “Prices remain at record levels, creating the opportunity for many organizations to make their operations more efficient and bolster their endowments.”

The chairman of the national real estate practice at Greenberg Traurig LP, Robert Ivanhoe, said the investment sales market “has seen increasing activity by not-for-profit organizations due to the confluence of a number of unrelated forces.The value of land and air rights has more than tripled in the last five years, making alternative uses and possible relocation for an existing nonprofit hard to ignore.”

He added that certain nonprofits “have come upon hard times of late, due to changing demographics, different patterns in charitable contributions, and declining participation – particularly in the case of certain houses of worship – all of which have forced these economic issues upon them.”

Nonprofits are offering for sale properties in every borough of the city.

In Manhattan, the headquarters of Spence-Chapin Services to Families and Children headquarters is located in a large townhouse at 4 E. 94th St.The nonprofit has retained Massey Knakal Realty Services and Prudential Douglas Elliman to sell the 22,000-squarefoot building. It is asking $23 million.

The agency plans to purchase two floors with about 20,000 square of space at 410 E. 92nd St. The space is half of a four-story community facility that is part of a development that includes the Courtyard New York Manhattan Marriott, which will open in July, and the recently completed First Avenue Towers, a residential rental apartment house. Spence Chapin is expecting approval for a city-issued $9.8 million bond to purchase the space.

Village Care of New York, aka the Village Nursing Home, owns 607-09 Hudson St. Built in 1905, it is situated on Abingdon Square in a historic preservation district in the heart of Greenwich Village. It has frontage on Hudson and Greenwich streets, as well as the entire block front on West 12th Street.The property, which once served as a hotel, was converted to a nursing home in 1981. It is being marketed for sale for $39 million.

A couple of nonprofits sold properties in Manhattan last month. Cabrini Medical Center sold its three-story landmark building at 137 Second Avenue, between 9th Street and St. Mark’s Place. Built in 1884, the 12,800-squarefoot building was sold for $4.8 million, or $375 a square foot,to Herbert Hirsch. The building was delivered vacant.

The American Federation of Arts sold its six-story, 14,820-square-foot headquarters at 41 E. 65th St. between Madison and Park avenues for $15.78 million.

A number of properties are being marketed on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.

American Continental Properties reportedly has entered a partnership agreement with Lincoln Square Synagogue. Under the agreement, the company may be interested in buying the synagogue at 208 Amsterdam Ave. If the synagogue site is sold, a new Lincoln Square Synagogue would be built adjacent to the three-story Reconstructionist Synagogue at 190 Amsterdam Ave.

Meanwhile, the nation’s oldest Jewish congregation, Congregation Shearith Israel Synagogue, at 18 W. 70th St. and Central Park West, is planning to develop a nine-story mixed-use building. The first four floors of the building at 10 W.70th St.would serve as classrooms and meeting space for the synagogue, and the top floors would be developed as residential full-floor condominium apartments.

Earlier this year, the Jewish Theological Seminary sold two six-story elevator rental apartment buildings steps away from Columbia University at 515-521 W. 122nd St. in Morningside Heights.The price was $9.2 million.

The Cathedral Church of St.John the Divine has recently signed an agreement with AvalonBay Communities to build a market-rate rental apartment building at 1047 Amsterdam Ave. at West 110th Street and Morningside Drive. The developer plans to enter a 99-year ground lease for the new building. The church has granted Columbia University a three and a half year option to lease and develop the strip of land directly to the north of the cathedral, on West 113th Street between Amsterdam Avenue and Morningside Drive.

Jehovah’s Witnesses is the owner of a three-story residential building at 409 Central Park West between West 100th and 101st streets.The church is seeking $4.5 million for the air rights. It plans to remain in the first three floors of the building and allow a developer to build on top or adjacent to the property. Jehovah’s Witnesses is also the owner of a building at 960 E. 174th St. in the Bronx that is used as an assembly hall for worship. The property is being sold for $1.35 million to a developer of affordable housing that plans to construct a 34,000-square-foot building.

Harlem has the city’s largest concentration of churches.

“Churches who find that they have air rights available for residential development in areas where free market residential development was not in vogue are now seeking joint venture partners,” a partner at Massey Knakal Realty Services, Shimon Shkury, said.

An example is the Mount Mariah Baptist Church at 2050 Fifth Ave. between 125th and 126th streets. “The church is seeking capital from the developer and plans to remain at the site,” Mr. Shkury said. “Subsequently, the church would co-develop the site for residential condominiums.”

Last year, the owner of the adjacent property at 2056 Fifth Ave., the Gospel Temple Church of God in Christ Inc., sold its four-story corner building for $4.5 million to a developer that is renovating the church and building residential condominiums. The church took the proceeds of the sale and moved to a larger facility in the Bronx.

Uptown Partners is completing a 77-unit condominium, the Lenox, at West 129th Street and Lenox Avenue.The tower is on the former site of Mount Calvary Pentecostal Church. The developer also is developing a condominium residence on the site of Bethel Gospel Assembly Church, on the entire block front of East 119th to East 120th streets between Madison and Fifth avenues.

Earlier this year, Christ Church United Methodist, at 520 Park Ave. at the corner of East 60th Street, agreed to sell the 70,000 square feet of air rights at a price of $430 a foot, or about $30 million, to a joint venture comprising Zeckendorf Developers, Whitehall Fund, and Global Holdings. The church’s pastor, the Reverend Stephen Bauman, said the sale of an unused “vertical asset” will fund ministry programs, such as a public school in the South Bronx that has been adopted by the church.

The Bay Ridge Methodist Church has been located at the corner at the corner of Fourth and Ovington avenues in Brooklyn for more than 100 years. In addition to the church, a two-story school building and a building that is used as a parsonage are offered for sale at $12 million. The buyer can build an 85,550-square-foot residential tower and a 92,754-square-foot community facility. The church is seeking a purchaser who will build a church on the community facility space.

It looks like a winning season for the Mets at their home in Flushing. Nearby, Massey Knakal is marketing a prime development site at the intersection of Northern Boulevard and Main Street, currently the home of a Chinese church. The 52,000-squarefoot buildable site is being offered for $12 million.

The Clarett Group is one of Manhattan’s leading developers of residential condominiums. Construction is under way on its latest tower, Sky House, a 55-story, 139-unit luxury condominium tower at 11 E. 29th St. in the Madison Square Park North neighborhood. Last year, the group bought the air rights from the adjacent Church of the Transfiguration, known as the Little Church around the Corner, at 1 E. 29th St. When completed, the first four floors of the tower will house a portion of the church.

The Hudson Companies is erecting a 26-story dormitory for NYU on its site at 124 E. 12th St., the former site of St. Ann’s Church. “We were the beneficiary of the U.S. Postal Service and the New York Archdiocese wanting to maximize their value with underutilized assets,” a partner at the Hudson Companies,David Kramer, said.” In the case of the post office there were air rights available above Cooper Station. With regard to St. Ann’s Church, the site was vacant. This project reinforced for us the enormous economic activity generated by the city’s nonprofit sector.”

Over the past few years, many other of the city’s leading nonprofit organizations also have benefited from the sale of underperforming assets. Industry leaders expect this trend to continue for the next few years.

Mr. Stoler is a television broadcaster and senior vice president at a title insurance company. He can be reached at mstoler@newyorkrealestatetv.com.