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Salvation Church of God purchased 5601 Avenue N from the Floyd Bennett American Legion
Post 1060. Google. OUT-POST
Mill Basin American Legion post sold to Christian church
BY JESSICA PARKS
Citing a decrease in membership,
the Mill Basin American Legion Hall
has sold their Avenue N outpost to a
Brooklyn-based Christian ministry,
according to the organization’s head.
“We downsized because at one time
we almost had 1,000 veterans at the
post, and now we are down to 185 members,”
said Andrew Affrunti, the commander
of the Floyd Bennett American
Legion Post 1060. “We don’t need
all of that room and the maintenance
was becoming too much work.”
The Salvation Church of God, a
Christian church with nearly 1,000 congregants
that fi rst opened in Brooklyn
in September 2016, purchased the
space near E. 56th Street to use for both
church services and as their new administrative
offi ce — which will move from
their current leased space in Flatbush,
according to the church’s secretary.
“Our congregation is growing, so
the next best move to was to obtain a
new property,” said Rose Francois.
“We will be moving permanently to
the new location on Avenue N.”
Sales talks had been in the works
for several months, and the property
offi cially changed hands late last year,
and the religious organization plans to
embark on a two-phase construction
project — fi rst to build a temporary
sanctuary and a main ballroom, and
later to construct a permanent sanctuary,
Francoise said.
“We have a long term plan of construction
and hopefully within the
next three to fi ve years, people will
like what they see,” she said.
The religious institution jumped at
the chance to purchase the new digs
for use as new principle location because
of its accessibility to the highway
and other forms of transportation,
and because they found the neighborhood
safe, which Francoise said was of
utmost importance to them.
“Sometimes we come out of services
late,” she said. “And we were
looking for a safe neighborhood for our
congregants.”
Meanwhile, Affrunti and his fellow
veterans — who have gone a year without
a physical location — had hoped
to open a new outpost at 2178 Flatbush
Ave. in February, but nearly $50,000
in unexpected repairs has left those
plans in fl ux.
“We decided to sell the building and
bought a smaller building,” said Affrunti.
“We thought we wouldn’t have
to pay anything for renovations — but
the boiler doesn’t work and there’s a
leak.”
But those costly renovations are
just the latest in a series of obstacles
preventing the American Legion from
opening on Flatbush Avenue — including
a months-long stretch without gas
service resulting from a National Grid
moratorium on new customers.
In May, the British-based utility
company announced a halt on natural
gas hookups shortly after state regulators
nixed a plan to construct a controversial
23-mile gas pipeline off the
coast of Coney Island.
The six-month moratorium continued
through November when Governor
Andrew Cuomo struck up a deal
— despite threatening to strip the gas
company of its state-granted monopoly
status— for the gas company to resume
connecting new and old customers
to gas service.
“With having had no heat, with
everything seeming to have to be repaired,”
said Affrunti. “We postponed
opening the post offi cially until we
have everything in order.”
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