In the heart of Pine Plains, the historically significant building at 3007 Church St. is back on the market.
The three-story structure, which spans more than 3,000 square feet, was originally built in 1838 as a Baptist church and later served as the home of the Pine Plains Grange from 1935 to 1989.
In October 2024, the property’s owner, Henri Lipton, and his fiancée, Michele Moses, submitted a site plan to the Pine Plains Planning Board proposing to transform the building into a bookstore café. Eight months later, the couple abandoned the plan, and the property is now listed with Elyse Harney Real Estate for $736,500. In June 2023, the building sold for $650,000 according to Dutchess County records.
“We are book and food people, and not business people, and the more we came to understand and appreciate the realities of self-financing a small business, the less right and prudent it felt,” Moses said. “We are sorry that this plan did not pan out for us, but we are eager to support anyone who has a similarly community-minded dream for the space. We heard so much enthusiasm for so many aspects of our idea — coffee in the morning, wine in the evening, a place to gather — and we hope that these desires can still be fulfilled. It could be a beautiful yoga studio. We do see so many possibilities for how the grange could be put to use and are actively looking for the right steward to take it over.”
The building has not been open to the public since 2022, when it housed Gallery and Goods, a combined gallery and retail space opened in 2017. Former owner Josh Nathanson, who ran the arts-and-crafts emporium for five years with his husband, Brett McCormack, said the pair felt deeply connected to the building.
“We loved feeling part of the continuation of its history and relished the incredible open, voluminous space filled with historical windows and finishes,” Nathanson said. “We’re really rooting for success for whoever takes on the next chapter as caretaker of this magnificent building.”
Design work and architectural planning done in anticipation of the proposed bookstore café — known as Sky and Celery — may benefit a future owner. “3007 Church has what we know is a rare asset in Pine Plains, which is space in the lot to expand its septic capacity,” Moses said. “We have an architectural plan for how to do this that we would be happy to share with any interested buyers.”
Unfortunately at a $736,500 asking price, no business is viable in this space – certainly not a yoga studio – as the cost to finance a purchase of this property would require a tenant lease cost that would be impossible to support. The numbers just don’t work, particularly in a small town with no foot traffic, for a building with no parking, requiring significant work (and septic system headaches) before anything can even open in the space. This building sold for $285k in 2017 and it hasn’t housed a viable business since then. It sold to the current owners for $600-650k in 2023 (according to Zillow). Its market value seems to have increased arbitrarily (normally commercial real estate increases in value from demand or improvements). It’s a great building in need of a lot of work to support a business. Unless the asking price comes way down, i predict this building stays vacant for a long time.