Acommon trend lately, both on the Upper West Side and throughout the city, has been the conversion of places of worship to residential condominiums.

The most recent example is 212 West 93rd Street, which has been inhabited by its congregation since 1923, and will officially become a 14-story, 20-unit condo building after activists conceded defeat in their fight for preservation. A judge signed off on the sale of the property’s leasehold last month to Ornstein Leyton for $24.3 million. The president of the synagogue said the sale is necessary, as the building’s upkeep has become too expensive to maintain. $18.3 million of the sales proceeds will be used to pay for the construction of a new synagogue.

West Park Presbyterian Church, at Amsterdam Avenue and 86th Street, was given a landmark designation in 2010, much to the dismay of its congregation. Because of the financial struggles the church has been dealing with over the past few years, members of the church wish to add apartments to the structure to provide a source of income.

The Congregation Shearith Israel is currently undergoing a condominium project next door to its synagogue at 8 West 70th Street. The five-unit building was originally planned as a 42-story apartment tower in 1983, but was cut down to nine stories in 2006. The project has been facing opposition from the community and preservation groups, but is still happening as of today.

The Lincoln Square Synagogue opened in 2013 after nearly six years of construction. It was the first new synagogue built in Manhattan in five decades. The new building, at 180 Amsterdam Avenue, was built two doors down from its former facility. When real estate developer American Continental Property approached the synagogue about doing a land swap, they jumped at the opportunity, as they had grown out of their old space and were hoping for an upgrade. They were given $20 million to put toward new construction in exchange for their old property. The plan now is to turn the old synagogue, at 200 Amsterdam Avenue, into a 50- or 60-story building.

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