Developer Shalom Lamm offers $330,000 to buy church in Bloomingburg

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The 150-year-old United Methodist Community Church on North Road reportedly owes thousands of dollars in past-due heating bills.JOHN DeSANTO/Times Herald-Record

Published: 2:00 AM - 02/19/14 Last updated: 11:42 AM - 02/19/14

BLOOMINGBURG The builder of the controversial 396-home Hasidic development may soon be adding a venerable old church to the many buildings he owns in this eastern Sullivan county village. Shalom Lamm has offered $330,000 for the white-shingled, Mountainview United Methodist Church, which is more 150 years old.

"The church has been for sale for a long time as it continues to consolidate its finances," said Lamm. "We feel proud and privileged to help a faith community."

Lamm says he isn't sure what he will do with the church. He already owns at least a dozen homes, apartment complexes, storefronts and other buildings in this village of some 400 residents.

A state Appellate Court judge on Tuesday allowed work to continue on 12 buildings of the controversial 396-home Hasidic development in Bloomingburg.

Judge Leslie Stein issued a stay of the stop-work order granted earlier this month by Sullivan County Supreme Court Judge Stephan Schick. So until an Appellate Court hearing March 10, work will resume on the 12 buildings already under construction at the Villages at Chestnut Ridge.

"One hundred twelve people can now go back to work," said developer Shalom Lamm, whose lawyers appealed Schick's decision.

Schick had seemed to agree with the lawyers for the Rural Community Coalition and the Town of Mamakating, who argued that the land on which the development is being built was annexed illegally, since the residents of that land didn't vote on the annexation, as required by the state Constitution.

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Developer Shalom Lamm offers $330,000 to buy church in Bloomingburg