BOSTON – The Organization Friends of St. Nicholas, which has assumed the awesome great responsibility for the completion of the St. Nicholas Greek Orthodox Church and National Shrine in New York, has raised the $42 million necessary for the completion of the new church at Ground Zero in Lower Manhattan. Construction is scheduled to resume in early August. It was supposed to start earlier but was delayed due to the Coronavirus pandemic. According to a detailed pamphlet published recently by The Friends of St. Nicholas everything is in place for the dream to finally be realized, the completion of St. Nicholas and its ‘thyranixia’ – the grand opening – on September 11, 2021. 

The pamphlet highlighted that: 

“The execution of the Skanska contract is an important milestone because it places the full commitment of the supervision, coordination and insuring of our project from now through completion. Skanska is one of the largest and most well regarded construction companies in the world. They also have a deep relationship with our Landlord, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, for whom they have completed billions of dollars in construction work both at Ground Zero as well as LaGuardia Airport. 

“We will recommence active construction on site in the first days of August. Waterproofing work is in progress on the Liberty Street side with anticipated completion by the end of this week. The next side will be the West (next to our main entrance) which will be coordinated with Skanska. Two lifts have been brought and the site is being primed for the painting. The crane for the skylight installation is expected to be onsite in the coming weeks. We are expecting to receive proposals for the interstitial space mitigation this week.”

According to the official pamphlet “out of $86.2 Million raised, the Metropolises, Parishes, and National Philoptochos Chapters have donated $4,780,302, or 5.4% of the total.” In summary, “Major Donors contributed 94.6%, Metropolises 3.5%, Philoptochos 1.9%.”

According to the pamphlet:

“The project budget stands unchanged (below), but the recent fundraising activity has been exceptional.   

Cost to Complete (Phase II)   

Remediation Costs: … $250,000 

Pre-construction Costs: … $96,000 

Construction Costs: … $38,260,025 

Soft Costs (consulting): … $2,121,500 

Owner-direct Costs (icons, seating, AV, etc.): … $1,010,000 

Subtotal: … $41,737,525 

Project Contingency: … $3,233,225 

Total Project Budget: … $44,970,750 

Total Fundraising Goal … $45 Million 

Contingency Reserve … $3 Million 

Net Fundraising Goal … $42 Million 

Cash Received … $25 Million 

Cash Spent … $6 Million ($5.750 M to the curtain wall manufacturer) 

Cash on Hand … $19.2 Million   

Outstanding Pledges … $19 Million   

Funds Required To Achieve Goal … $924,691   

The pamphlet adds that “Thanks to the generous gift of $600,000 of Steve and Frosene Zeis, the Endowment Fund has been established. We thank them for their beneficence and look forward to others joining them. 

Dennis Mehiel, Chairman; Michael Psaros, 

Vice-Chairman – The Friends of St. Nicholas, Inc.   

The pamphlet also noted that “Following a presentation to a recent meeting of the Holy Eparchial Synod by the Friends of St. Nicholas, at the request of the Synod voiced by Metropolitan Evangelos of New Jersey, we are presenting a detailed report on the Metropolis, Parish, and Philoptochos fundraising efforts to date. Please note that the Philoptochos totals are through 2017. 

“The charts below tell the story and demonstrate how enormously grateful we should be to the major donors whose extraordinary generosity has made the rebuilding of Saint Nicholas possible,” the Friends declare. 

Direct Archdiocesan District 

$70,000.00 $728,062.74 $798,062.74 $190,824.00 

 New Jersey Metropolis

$100,000.00 $602,047.50 $702,047.50 $310,015.45 

 Atlanta Metropolis 

$10,000.00 $374,723.56 $384,723.56 $114,474.00 

 Detroit Metropolis 

$20,000.00 $301,357.98 $321,357.98 $117,902.00 

Chicago Metropolis

$10,000.00 $279,975.76 $289,975.76 $268,124.14 

 San Francisco Metropolis 

$35,000.00 $231,804.72 $266,804.72 $193,810.81 

 Boston Metropolis 

$15,290.00 $143,574.87 $158,864.87 $31,640.00 

 Pittsburgh Metropolis

$15,000.00 $74,499.50 $89,499.50 $84,060.84 

Denver Metropolis 

$10,000.00 $63,065.84 $73,065.84 $71,797.69 

Archdiocese Totals 

$285,290.00 $2,799,112.47 $3,084,402.47 $1,695,850.00