The Pelham Community Church on Washington Avenue.

The historic Community Church of the Pelhams on Washington Avenue may be considering selling its property after redevelopment proposals that would have allowed the church to undergo expensive and needed renovations failed.

In an email dated Aug. 14, the church announced that it would host a conference call on Aug. 21 with William Eisenhut, a real estate agent with Cushman Wakefield in Stamford who has “experience in marketing church properties in the Westchester County area.” Church parishioners and other members of the community were invited to sign up for the conference call.

However, the virtual meeting was canceled four days before its scheduled date. “We will announce a new date in the future,” the church said in an email.

Church officials have not returned several calls to the office’s voicemail page seeking details of their plans.

The Community Church, a member of the United Church of Christ located at 448 Washington Avenue, has been struggling for years as its century-old building needs extensive renovations and membership numbers have declined.

“Over the past ten to twenty years, Community Church of the Pelhams has undergone a number of changes that have forced us to take a hard look at what the future may hold,” the email about the canceled call said. “Most importantly, the lack of preventative maintenance over the years has led to the deterioration of the physical structure of the beautiful building we call home. In addition, attendance and participation have declined dramatically, such that at each Sunday service, there are generally more visitors and friends attending the service than members of the church.”

Since 2019, the church has been exploring two possible partnerships to raise the funds needed to restore the building.

In December 2022, the Pelham Children’s Center issued a statement saying it was interested in discussions about revitalizing the building. It envisioned a worship area for the church, a home for the Junior Wonders preschool that has operated there for a quarter century, space for the PCC’s own programs, a neighborhood playground, and special amenities for the community, including the Boy Scouts and the Pelham Recreation Department.

There was no news of this initiative a year and a half ago, until the church said in an email on August 14 that the PCC had concluded that “the costs were far beyond expectations” and that the plan could only go forward if the church transferred the land to the PCC in return for a long-term agreement to use the space in a new building.

“The church has rejected this,” the email said.

According to Dan Rowoth, PCC CEO, “Both sides worked really hard to work something out,” but ultimately “thewill not result in a final agreement.”

He declined to comment on why acquiring the church property was a prerequisite to the deal.

(Junior Wonders moved out of the building last winter after the heating system stopped working. The preschool plans to resume its day program in new space next year and continues its Playful Wonders after-school program at Siwanoy Elementary School. Other groups, including Alcoholics Anonymous, which had met at the church since 1947, the Boy Scouts and another religious congregation, also no longer use the building.)

Prior to the PCC’s efforts, Michael Volpe, a former mayor of the village of Pelham, began working with the church in 2019 and submitted a proposal in November 2022 to build a five-story, 30-unit apartment building on the property and renovate the church building. The rental units would be 80% occupied by at least one person age 55 or older, according to the proposal. The $10 million plan also included space for a daycare center and 4,500 square feet for a co-working location.

The plan drew immediate criticism from Pelhamwood’s neighborhood and others in the wider community. The Pelhamwood Association and a new group, Friends of Residential Pelham (which was led by Dustin Lawlor and has not been heard from since), collected 700 signatures on a petition opposing the development, hired an attorney, and urged people to attend the Pelham Village Planning Board’s December 20, 2022 meeting, which is next scheduled to consider the rezoning required for the project.

However, Volpe removed the proposal from the board’s agenda. Rev. Noel Vanek, who was pastor of the Community Church and had worked with Volpe on the renovation project, retired just weeks later. The church has had an interim pastor since then.

In a letter to the editor published in the Pelham Examiner at the end of the year, Volpe wrote: “Let us hope that the Community Church and the congregation can find a solution to the problems facing the church in the new year.”

Kiran Schwaderer and Nate Reynoso contributed to this story.