State Greenlights $5.9M Sale Of Bed-Stuy's Razed Dangler Mansion Site

BED-STUY, NY — In 2022, a crane tore down historic Bed-Stuy's Dangler Mansion despite a last-ditch community effort to save the 120-year-old building. Now, the site is headed to a new owner.

Public records show the Attorney General’s Office signed off on a $5.9 million deal allowing 441 Garden LLC — led by Mendel Fleischman — to acquire the 441 Willoughby Avenue, Brooklyn property, closing a contentious chapter of local activism.

The approval comes more than a year after the AG’s office rejected a prior $4.3 million offer from developer Tomer Erlich, who sparked outrage when he filed demolition permits and abruptly razed the circa-1890s mansion. The teardown drew fierce backlash from neighbors, who nearly secured landmark status for the building in a last-minute bid to stop it.

At the time, Erlich told the community he planned to replace the longtime neighborhood fixture with a seven-story, 44-unit apartment building on the site.

The proposed sale by Erlich was halted when both the attorney general and a judge questioned its fairness and raised red flags about the nonprofit's management. The attorney general's office rejected the deal, expressing concerns about transaction, according to reports. Officials further criticized the organization's asset oversight and highlighted its failure to file IRS tax forms since 2014, factors that led to denying the sale.

Under the approved deal, 441 Garden LLC has agreed to pay $5.9 million for the corner parcel, with closing expected within 30 days of approval, per the Attorney General’s document.

The petition to sell was filed by the United Grand Chapter Order of the Eastern Star, the all-woman Masonic lodge that owns the property and must obtain state approval to sell a major charitable asset.

After paying outstanding debts and fees, the nonprofit will net approximately $1.614 million, which will be held in an escrow account and cannot be accessed without approval from the attorney general or State Supreme Court.

The French Gothic–style mansion was originally built in 1902 for Jacob Dangler, a prominent merchant who operated a meat-packing business on Myrtle Avenue. In 1941, the property was acquired by the Oriental Grand Chapter of the Eastern Star, a Masonic organization, which used the building in more recent years, officials said.