Brooklyn Heights Blog

The Brooklyn Eagle reports that the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, whose massive landgrab and destruction of many brownstones in Brooklyn Heights was a catalyst of the landmark district movement here over 40 years ago,  has purchased more land in upstate Walkill, N.Y.

A spokesperson for the religious group, who in the eyes of many “saved” Brooklyn Heights when it flipped the neighborhood’s welfare hotels to dormitories in the 1970s, tells the paper that it’s “too early” to say whether the Watchtower will be pulling out of the neighborhood soon.

Brooklyn Eagle: “We have eight smaller buildings [in Brooklyn Heights] we have yet to sell,” Devine said. “Because of the market we are not actively promoting their sale. We’ve even started using the Bossert [Hotel] again on a limited basis.”

As previously reported in the Eagle, the Bossert was going to be acquired by Robert Levine, president and CEO of RAL Companies & Affiliates, and developer of the former Watchtower shipping complex at 360 Furman, but he backed out of the deal.

The other buildings still on the market include 165, 161 and 183 Columbia Heights, 105 Willow St. and 34 Orange St., all residential buildings that are now vacant except for some tenants that pre-existed Watchtower ownership.