A tipster alerted us to this news item on The Real Deal blog about the imminent sale of Hotel Bossert:
R.A.L. Companies & Affiliates is expected to buy the former Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague Street for $92 million and turn it into student housing, according to Robert Levine, president and CEO of R.A.L. Companies & Affiliates.
“It’s pretty much a done deal,” he said, adding that he expects to close on the sale by the end of the month.
The hotel, once known as the Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn, will now suffer the same fate as its cousin, the St. George.
Robert Levine made this amusing statement about the deal:
“It is truly a beautiful landmark building,” Levine said. He said his company intends to renovate the interior of the 140,000-square-foot building and turn it into student housing. R.A.L. would then sell or lease the building to a university.
I’m trying to picture the Waldorf-Astoria draped in purple and white. Seriously, can you see this lobby as a dorm hall?
Ug. I can’t imagine a worse use for that building.
I can just hear it now… “Hey baby, want to come up to my dorm room? I have a sick view of New York Harbor.”
Peter
http://www.FlashlightWorthy.com
Kegger in the Marine Roof!
this is bad news for the neighborhood.
the bossert is our plaza hotel.
making it a dorm house is an affront to brooklyn heights,
an insult to brooklyn, and a dismissal of the goals of historic preservation.
how sad that the gilded details of the bossert will now be the
canvas for animal house bodily fluids of all kinds.
this is the worst news of the year.
this may be the reason, once and for all, to cash in and move out.
FYI, The Clark Street lobby of the Saint George dorm is spotlessly clean. This is a dorm, not a frat house, folks. For all of you (myself included) who complain about the lack of bars, this dorm will make an incremental shift towards having more young people in the neighborhood, and will improve market conditions for having bars and restaurants that cater to a younger crowd. What would you have preferred they do with this former Hotel? Gut it and turn it into luxury condos for the stroller set?? The rooms are probably rather small, and frankly it will be easier to “preserve” it in its original state as a dorm as opposed to tearing down walls and making apartments out of it. Plus, it is landmarked, so they aren’t going to rip out that lovely lobby.
Lastly, wasn’t the building essentially a dorm for the jehovah’s witnesses before?
I think “my 2 cents” is overly optimistic.
how can you think that a beaux arts monumental hotel, the finest in the borough, could be successful maintained as a dorm? who will attend to maintaining the incredibly elaborate facades and interiors? The witnesses worked hard to keep the place up, a luxury condo would likewise spend what it needed to keep the place up -but a dorm? the building is lost, bye bye.
do you think perhaps that monumental buildings take care of themselves? have you ever owned an historic house or have you ever been responsible for the upkeep of an historic building? it is almost all-consuming.
the bossert is toast, I am very very sorry to hear that it is going to be run by NYU or BLS or some other academic bureaucracy with zero interest in the neighborhood and zero competence in maintainng first-rate historic buildings.
“89″, I do share your concerns, but I feel you are being a bit melodramatic here. I happen to own/live in a “historic” building, and yes it takes a lot of maintenance – thank you for your condescension. Let’s say it was turned into apartments instead– you think that building will be kept intact? Nope. It will end up like the other tall, fine building at the other end of Montague at Clinton. Completely gutted and covered in scaffolding for years- an ornate shell to be filled with sub zero fridges and open kitchens. The building is not set up for apartments, and would require major work do make it so. Using it as a dorm is more likely to preserve the basic integrity of the building as it is now. To be honest the facade is not the most ornate on earth and is in excellent repair. It will not fall apart over night. The lobby is quite sumptuous and I do share your concern that it needs to be kept up. On the other side, this building is a financial asset. I don’t know about you, but if i spent 92 million bucks or more on a historic building, I would think I might take pretty good care of it. I’ll finish by saying, I do wish it were turned back into a hotel instead. But we can’t really help that now can we.
I live next to the other student dorms and believe me it is not too fun. Screams out the window on the weekend. Drinking on the roof, tons of students hanging around the front smoking and throwing their butts on the ground. Plus they forced me out of the Eastern Athletic, since they get a free membership there. The Equinox is better anyway, but it isn’t next door!
I don’t see a problem with having some coeds to look at at Eastern Athletic ;-) I often feel like I am the only person under 50 when i go there.
Have you ever walked by the St. George Hotel on a Friday morning on the way to the subway? Sometimes you have to dodge vomit. It’s not the best way to start your day. I happen to be amongst the younger generation of homeowners in the neighborhood and would prefer not to have more bars in the neighborhood. That’s why we bought here! I’m not the Park Slope type. I prefer less restaurants and noise after 10. I live in a high rise and I can hear the screams of those crazy dorm kids. It would be prudent for the Brooklyn Heights real estate market to limit the number of college students.
I am begining to think 2cent is a randy 54-year-old pretending to be younger around the coeds.
It is really no surprise that Levine has chosen to, in effect, trash the Bossert. If it were turned into luxury apartments, it would kill his 360 Furman Street project. Who would live down there by the BQE if they could have the same great views on Montague and Hicks?
I am not optimistic about this. I think the Witnesses have done us wrong by selling to Levine and thus turning the fabled Bossert into vomit central.
As a resident of Brooklyn Heights and an individual with several issues with the ‘violets’ I mourn for Montague street along with my fellow neighbors of the Heights.
I think the buyer’s comments are just subterfuge because that’s all the building is currently zoned for. I would guess once he closes and starts applying for zoning changes/variances, the truth will come out. It doesn’t make sense to think that a university would buy/rent from him when they could have just bought it outright in the first place. He’s no dummy and knows that full well.
Good point Walter!
And “89″ you are waaaay off regarding my age, buddy. But that joke did make me chuckle.
I’m more part of the Daniel Squadron generation actually. :-)
You kids pipe down! Don’t make me come up there….
What a tragedy
I live in The Remsen and never thought the neighborhood could get any louder until now..
I guess I’ll be placing the police on speed dial.
I live around the corner from the St. George dorms and they are horrible. I moved here when it was still under construction…when the neighborhood was still tranquil and pleasant and everything I thought the heights was.
I live on the 9th floor and can still here them shouting down the block at all hours, walk around vomit on the weekends, walk through plumes of smoke when I pass the building.
What does dorms have to do with bars in the neighborhood? Are we encouraging underaged drinking?
I’m with Loving Brooklyn!
if it has to be a dorm, let’s hope for grad students….
of course, the dream would be for it to be re-opened as a boutique hotel with a restaurant….
Isn’t having more college students going to discourage bars, who don’t really want to deal with fake IDs, underage drinking and the SLA?
Mixing a small boutique hotel (with a bar/restaurant) with some apartments would be a much nicer addition to the neighborhood than more student housing. Anyone have $92.1 million?
Some thoughts:
*Boutique hotel/bar/restaurant would have been ideal…especially the bar/rest utilized the roofdeck
*Do not think that the dorm will bring any new (desired) bars or better restaurants to the area. If undergrads – time and money on hands, but too young to drink… grads – no time, less money.
*Biggest winners will be Starbucks, Kinkos, CVS and all the chain restaurants
* Biggest losers will be the residents of BH
Why not turn it into a nursing home while we’re at it? Would that make you all happier? Keep the heights gray! that’s what I say!
Let’s not blame all the local vomit on the college kids! Have you seen all the homeless activity on the Promenade lately?
my2, you have the best ideas EVER!
GHB, maybe you can write our new motto, “Brooklyn Heights, just one big vomitorium”.
The Bossert as a dorm? How about the Eiffel Tower as a big-box store?
The issue is cognitive dissonance on several levels.
Students, with their attendant “lifestyle” paraphernalia and innocence of “form” and meaning, just don’t belong there.
i live right by the st. george and cant stand that syudent roach motel. i moved here from smith street b/c i wanted a quiet, family atmosphere. the dormrats contribute nothing to the neighborhood (well other than the fascatis and a few other rests) Clark is littered with cigarette butts despite the fact that there are ashtrays right there (i guess these precious millenials cant be bothered to use them) and i have seen quite a few shady characters lurking around (party suppliers). This neighborhood is incongruous with becoming Dorm Island. Cant they go to dumbo where they can litter and destroy what is already ugly.
Apart from those who are hoping for a little nookie with the coeds (2 cents), the reaction of the community about a dorm in the Bossert is pretty negative. And I agree it would be bad. Who would have thought we would miss the Witnesses? After all they were so quiet, and clean, and sober. Sigh….
My dad came to visit me from DC a few years ago. I took him on a tour of the neighborhood and when we ended up on the Promenade I whispered to him, “most of the real estate here is owned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses.” A gentleman standing near us overheard me and put his hands to his ears, wiggled his fingers and said loudly, “ooooh, booogie woooogie woooogie”. Clearly a JW with a sense of humour.
Reading this blog for the last few months has drastically lowered my opinion of the residents of Brooklyn Heights. Person after person show a lack of tolerance and a surplus of negative, spiteful and just plain dumb attitudes. I live across from the Henry St dorm and I see absolutely nothing wrong with it or its inhabitants. The kids are mainly quiet, polite and respectful – much more than some of the residents of my building, users of the subway station, parents of young children, car service employees, etc.
The influx of students is great for the neighborhood. The move-in recently reminded me and my wife of taking our kids to college a few years ago. Get a grip, you misanthropic snobs! (BTW, I’m 61)
Esplanader, my remark about coeds was a joke.
I don’t want nookie. I want diversity. This is New York City, not Greenwich. I moved here for the quiet and beauty just like the rest of you. But i feel like many people here are such NIMBY reactionaries to ANYTHING new. They didn’t want the witnesses here back in the 60s, and now we’re begging them to stay. Ironic, no?
Ah, Soulman, given your age, you’re probably asleep when all the mayhem occurs, bless your heart. Am glad the kids are respectful toward the elderly.
Dear AliG -
I should add that I play bass in a rock band with a 28 year old singer, teach middle school and walk my dog at 11pm. Get a grip. If the shoe fits…
Soulman wrote: “Person after person show a lack of tolerance and a surplus of negative, spiteful and just plain dumb attitudes.”
If it makes you feel any better, this is not a Brooklyn Heights phenomenon but describes just about all blogs.
Keep on truckin, Soulman. Glad you’re still living an active lifestyle.
Soulman, the issue isn’t that student’s shouldn’t be housed in the Heights; rather, it concerns the conversion of the Bossert, a glorious architectural emblem, into a dorm.
The building should, in my opinion, house non-transients who will make an investment in its space, in living there–something students aren’t likely to do.
I don’t dish students–I was one myself. However, I see housing them in the Bossert as unfair to it–as a form of disregard, even disrespect, for its role in the community.
(Should be, in my post above: “…the issue isn’t that students….”)
soulman, i think the converse is also true. if anyone says anything that is not considered the PC liberal crap to say it is branded as spiteful and negative. opinions are like assholes…everyone has one. we all have a different vision of how we’d like our neighborhood to look and feel and a bunch of kids puking and throwing cigarette butts all over is not my preferred vision.
NIMBY is real people especially in high rent hoods. That premium is supposed to be protection against certain conditions. this is the foundation of the real estate market.
what i love and pay for in brooklyn heights is relative quiet, safety, cleanliness, community commuting convenience and a casual atmosphere where people act like adults (for the most part) are comfortable in their own skin and dont feel the need to be uber hip at all times. i will oppose any change that impinges on what i view as the character of the neighborhood.
not all change is good. only change for the better.
2cents: you want diversity and of all the neighborhoods in Brooklyn you chose Brooklyn Heights? Hello?
As a kid in the 70s, I remember how seedy the St. George & Bossert hotels had become. Essentially they were RSO residences with all of the usual problems associated therewith. College kids can never be as bad as what it had devolved into.
However, either pro or con, folks should raise their concerns at the Community Board 2 meeting this evening at six o’clock. The meeting will be held at 138 S. Oxford St, which is near the Williamsburg Savings Bank building.
This is a perfect example of why the Community Board community board needs a functional website.
TK I hope you come back with a full report!
Diversity, esplanader, is obviously not a primary criterion for choosing this neighborhood, as it is obviously not diverse. There are more exotic breeds of dogs here than of people. However, I am not opposed to it becoming more diverse, especially when what we are talking about here is more age diversity. But I guess this upsets people.
diversity for diversity’s sake is not a good thing. to make it meaningful, the contribution has to be positive. i am not sure what these college students are conttributing to this particular neighborhood other than the fact that they happen to be younger than most of us. how does that enhance my living experience on a daily basis? answer – it doesn’t.
BK heights is quiet, boring, mainstream and family-oriented. it is not hipster or destination nabe (other than promenade). love it or leave it alone.
2cents: People over forty are not allowed to move into DUMBO, or into parts of Williamsburg -it’s agaisnt the zoning ordinance or something.
we older types have to live somewhere.
In thirty years, all of DUMBO will be a retirement community.
it’ll be quaint. The Heights will be part of Greenwood cemetery and there will be memorials to where people finally dropped dead, outside Teresa’s, waiting in line at Starbucks, etc.
Why don’t we do this the right way: Let’s pass the hat and outbid these jerks. Montague St deserves something better than a dorm. And the neighborhood needs several thousand more college kids like we need a dirty bomb!
With the deep pockets in this Zip Code, whadaya say?
what a sad sad day. Having been a student in my past I don’t think I would want to be around my younger self at this stage in my life (mid to late 30s)
I definitely like the idea of a boutique hotel with condo and a nice semi upscale hotel restaurant/bar/lounge.
I’m so glad everyone showed up at the Community Board meeting this evening to discuss your concerns regarding the Bossert being turned into a dormitory. It would have fit in nicely with the presentation that was delivered outlining the affiliation/merger of NYU and Brooklyn Polytechnical Institute. It was revealed that a number of the residential buildings of NYU in Manhattan are not available due to lease expirations. That building is going to be filled college kids quicker than you can say Brooklyn Heights!
Is this a fact….another DORM!!! I hate this idea; there I wrote it. I have been living here long enough to know why I like it here; peace and quiet of people who are old enough to know to be peaceful and quiet. If I wanted to live in a loud place where kids would be hangin’ around and bringing their friends from other places to hang out; well then I would live near NYU.
Brooklyn Heights residents deserve more than this; and our community should demand more.
I am pretty sure the college kids that get placed in the BH dorm are not going to be very happy either. I am sure they are expecting the fun and excitement of the city, yet will be stuck with a snooze fest community with no fun restaurants, bars, coffee shops or shopping. Unhappy students and unhappy residents.
I live across the street and haven’t had a problem with the dorm/students. Hardly ever see them except at the beginning and end of the semester (though I do work long hours), except for a few smokers. Always thought they got bored almost immediately after move-in and do all of their partying in Manhattan…. I say any signs of life are welcome in BH (most young people can’t afford the neighborhood otherwise)….
There’s a Brooklyn Law School dorm (formerly owned by the JWs) on Hicks between Pineapple and Orange, and you never hear of rowdy behavior there.
I think the residents of the St. George should be policed better by the owners/management of the place. What happened to the standing rules about smoking, loud talking, disposal of cigarette butts, etc., that were put in place a while back? And, more to the point, has anyone actually complained about this behavior? (And not just here!)
While my personal preference for the Bossert would be a luxury hotel if only for the financial impetus it might provide for Montague Streeet, I’m a bit surprised by how broad a brush people are using to smear the students currently at the St. George. Percentage-wise, the dozen or so kids that quietly hang out and smoke in front of the place are nothing compared to the total population. No doubt, they can sometimes be annoying when they throw around a football (or the occasional cinderblock off the roof). And, yes, the dorm management should do a better job of policing the area. Somehow, though, I don’t expect this to be a problem at the Bossert. It’s just way too close to the BHA offices for the kids to get away with anything. Stanton will be out there chasing them with a stick
I do apologize to you all. I’ve lived in the St. George for the past 2 years (and still living here because I love the neighborhood and won’t be able to afford it after I start paying loans back). I too complain about the noise and I live here, but at least you don’t have it outside of your door. I do want to just make a note that not everyone who lives in the hotel is loud and obnoxious. The vomit, smoke, and noise bothers me just as much and the only policing I see is when there’s a squad car outside on Henry St.
One MAJOR difference this year, is that it’s now freshman housing as well as upper class people. I’m a senior and I have to say that the atmosphere is pretty different now.