Hadassah sells New York headquarters for $71.5 million

(JTA) — Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America, said it has sold its New York headquarters for $71.5 million.

The sale of the Midtown Manhattan building was approved by Hadassah’s board of directors on May 1, and a contract was signed a month later. The organization’s members will be asked to approve the sale at a special meeting in Dallas on July 17, according to a statement released by the organization.

The agreement gives Hadassah the right to use the building for up to three years.

“Hadassah is thrilled with the opportunity presented by this potential sale, which coincides with our 100th anniversary in 2012,” the organization’s president, Marcie Natan, said in a statement. “These exciting steps forward will allow us to find new, modern and upgraded space that will better serve our more than 330,000 members as we venture into our second century.”

Natan said that Hadassah leadership has been involved over the past nine months in the development of a strategic plan for its second century.

“Decisions regarding the allocation of funds will be addressed once the strategic plan has been finalized by the organization,” she said.

In late 2010, Hadassah agreed to return $45 million of the money it made in the Bernard Madoff scam. In early 2009, the organization laid off about a quarter of its national staff.