Watchtower Puts Towers Hotel On Market

By on May 25, 2016 10:29 pm in Brooklyn Heights, News, Real Estate, Watchtower

DNA Info reports that the Watchtower Tract & Bible Society, better known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, has put the (forgive my use of an over-used word, but here it does seem appropriate) iconic Towers Hotel building (photo, a “fortuitous find” by reader AEB), at Clark and Willow streets, up for sale. Back in 2006, in BHB’s infancy, our late founder and publisher John “Homer Fink” Loscalzo did a nice little history of the building, including its having been a hangout for the Brooklyn Dodgers (as, later, was the Bossert) and home of a Yiddish language radio station.

Addendum: reader Concerned reminds me of an important detail. The asking price is $140 million (for a building that cost $4 million to construct). So, for those of you with checkbooks handy….

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  • Concerned

    What’s the over/under on 140 million? The JW’s keep their places in very nice condition, but I assume there will be an almost total gut renovation to make two and three bedroom condos along with an awesome penthouse, rec rooms, etc…
    The Bossart went for 81 million, but that was in 2008. I’m not privy to the stats, but my guess is that apartment prices have gone up over 25% in Brooklyn heights since 2008.

  • T.K. Small

    Only 140 million…? I’ll take two!

  • SayWhat?

    We have such a lack of affordable housing here. I wonder if at least half of the units could be reserved for low-income and affordable units. We don’t need more high-prices homes in our little hood.

  • Concerned

    Low income housing? There are plenty of neighborhoods in Brooklyn that you can put low income housing. I am sympathetic to the plight of the poor and downtrodden, but that doesn’t mean I think it’s a good idea to put 100+ units of low income housing into the heart of one of the greatest neighborhoods in the country and the gem of Brooklyn.
    The market should dictate the prices here, while the tax dollars pay for low income housing somewhere else.

  • Concerned

    FYI, Mr. Scales, I’m not sure that the asking price is 140 million. I actually just guessed that number based upon my very loose grasp on the market. Unless you have verified the 140 million, it’s probably not right. However, if my guess was right, I’d appreciate some kudos. Thank you.

  • AnonyMom

    The JW’s have a fancy-schmancy marketing website for their real estate properties. https://www.watchtowerbrooklynrealestate.com/ No pricing though for comparison, Brooklyn Eagle reports that 124 Columbia Heights just sold to the owner of the Florida Panthers for $104M. http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2016/5/24/jehovahs-witnesses-put-former-brooklyn-heights-hotel-sale

  • rubenkincaid

    124 Columbia Heights sold for 105M and it has 150K SF. The Towers building is a larger property. 140M is probably correct.

    With the Towers building, 124 and 107 Columbia Heights, the Standish and the Squibb Buildings (plus the BPL fiasco) all slated for future conversion, what will become of Brooklyn Heights? Just guessing on numbers… 500 more units, 1200 more people, 250 more kids, 200 more cars? There’s no room in the schools, the hospital has been sold off. I miss the quietness of the Heights – that is forever gone. It’s been an astounding change.

  • SongBirdNYC

    I’m glad to hear you voice your concern about this. I went to the Levin Community Meeting last night for this exact reason, RubenKincaid (love your handle, btw). I specifically wanted to speak on the public record and expressed my concern about the impact of the en masse sale of the JW properties on infrastructure such as subways, emergency services and of course, schools, etc. I suggested to Levin that he not allow any of the JW buildings that are currently commercially zoned to be re-zoned as residential. (There’s not a whole lot we can do about buildings that are already zoned for residential-they are after all private sales). To the extend that we can TRY to plan for this onslaught, I also requested that the electeds work together with JW leadership to find out what other buildings they are planning to sell and when. I have it on good authority that 25-30 Columbia Heights, the iconic HQ is going to stay commercially zoned and developed in a manner not unlike Dumbo Heights. Jared Kushner is the developer of Dumbo Heights and supposedly in contract for the JW HQ.

  • AnonyMom

    Your elitism never ceases to leave me gobsmacked. Why do you live NYC? Why not live in a gated community so you can keep “those people” (homeless, those who earn less than you, whomever you deem less worthy than yourself) far, far away? Your comments make you out to be the kind of person that makes the rest of the city hate this neighborhood.

  • Concerned

    Have you spent any time in low income housing? It’s terrible. People are trying to fight to get out of and away from low income housing for a reason, and you want to bring that to Brooklyn Heights?
    The world doesn’t work the way you wished it did. And despite your probably positive intentions, if you were in charge you would ruin this neighborhood.

  • http://selfabsorbedboomer.blogspot.com/ Claude Scales

    Ah, well, fool me once….

  • AnonyMom

    Actually my parents grew up in tenements and in Smith Houses and my grandmother lived in La Guardia houses in the LES until the day she died. But that’s irrelevant except to say that they didn’t become criminals because they were “poor and downtrodden.” My point is, everyone should have access to “gemsof neighborhoods. The development is happening no matter what and I would welcome mixed income housing in Brooklyn Heights. Call me idealistic but diversity is good. If you think that would ruin the neighborhood then that’s on you.

  • Concerned

    Well, maybe we just should have given your family members apartments in the best neighborhoods in NYC. Is that your solution? You know, because of “diversity” and all…
    We live in the most diversified city in the world. We all share this city and are constantly on top of one another at all times. From the packed subways to the packed sidewalks, etc… Why is it that we all have to share everything with everyone all the time? Oh, I know. Because you’re a racist and an elitist if you don’t…
    And that’s exactly what you’re doing. You have the nerve to attempt to boil your position down to “diversity is good”. Walk down Montague street any day and tell me you don’t see access to and diversity in Brooklyn Heights.
    The simple fact of the matter is this: your way doesn’t work. It never has and it never will.
    So you can try to classify my position in any way that will make you feel better. Call me an “elitist”. Pretend like I shouldn’t even live in NYC because you think I want gates around my neighborhood. Pretend I’m against diversity so you can attempt to vilify me more. It’s fine by me, neighbor.

  • rubenkincaid

    Thank you very much for this info. It will be interesting to see if the JW HQ complex remains as commercial space, or if re-zoning is attempted. Water and bridge views are like crack to residential developers.

  • AnonyMom

    My, so angry…Your comments are elitist not because you want peace snd quiet when you get home, your comments are elitist because you want to keep people out of the neighborhood. And by access I mean live here. You also seem to feel that building affordable units or mixed income in new construction is “giving” something to people who make less money than those who can afford market value. If diversity doesn’t work, why would sociologists at Columbia University bother studying how the neighborhood and even the block you live on effects one’s level of achievement? http://nymag.com/scienceofus/2016/05/how-the-block-you-live-on-affects-your-shot-at-success.html?mid=facebook_nymag

  • Andrew Porter

    The guy who was in charge of the renovation lived for a while in my building. He told me that if the JWs knew its condition before they bought it, they’d never have signed the papers. Lots of places in the fire stairs where you could literally put your hand through holes in the walls to the outside. They had to replace most of the internal structural steel.

  • Andrew Porter

    You’ll have the contract tomorrow, TK!

  • Andrew Porter

    I scanned in a bunch of postcards of the Towers, when it was a going concern. Here are a few of them. One, the lobby:

  • Andrew Porter

    Second postcard: keen view of the dirigible the Hindenburg as taken from the top of the hotel:

  • Andrew Porter

    Third postcard, the fabulous Don Pedro Room:

  • Andrew Porter

    Last postcard, the Grand Ballroom:

  • Concerned

    Oh AnonyMom, I thought we were finished with this. This argument is much bigger than a Columbia University study or some NY magazine article. That’s cute, though. Like I said before, I’m sure you have good intentions and are a nice person. And I’m sure that you believe me to be an elitist. Neither of that matters to me. What matters is that people like you are not in charge. I wish you all the best in bringing public housing to Brooklyn Heights, so that EVERYONE can live in the best neighborhoods in NYC. If you ever succeed, I’m sure I’ll have sold my property at $1,500.00+ a square foot before it goes down to $900.00, then $800.00, then maybe even $700.00 a square foot. Until the day comes you give the neighborhood away, I’m going to keep working hard and sacrificing so that my family can live in a safe, clean and beautiful neighborhood.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    You are so wrong.
    I am a 50+ year native of BH, when I grew up here, the Heights was a very diverse neighborhood. There was a wide socioeconomic range, all living together in this “Small town in the middle of the big city”. Close exposure to people and having friends from diverse backgrounds is what made it such a great place to grow and live in.

  • Concerned

    YOU are so wrong about my argument. I have zero problem with diversity. I simply think that you should be able to afford a neighborhood to live in it. I know that’s a terrible thing to some of you (capitalism is SOOOOO terrible). Moreover, I think it would be a shame to turn one of Brooklyn Heights’ greatest buildings into public housing.

    So, to recap: I’m all for diversity, but not handouts to live in one of the greatest neighborhoods in the country. I’m also for ideas that work and have worked for years and years and years. You know, like law and order, capitalism and respect for others. If any of you see that as elitism, racism or any other derogatory term you want to throw my way, it’s you who have the problem and are wrong.

  • http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UlsiLOnWCoI Arch Stanton

    So you’re “all for diversity” but not for taking any steps to actually make it happen, Uh hu.

  • Miss Mensa

    If you’re going to be selling properties, you advertise, just like everybody else.