Florida Developer Buys Witnesses’ Towers Hotel, Will Convert to Senior Housing

The Wall Street Journal reports that Florida based private equity firm Kayne Anderson has bought 21 Clark Street, better known as the Towers Hotel, from the Watchtower Tract and Bible Society, better known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, for $200 million. The building has an interesting history, recounted by our late founder here. According to the Journal story, the new owners will convert it to luxury senior (65 and over) housing.

Share this Story:

, , , , ,

  • Carlo Trigiani

    It’s $200 million, not $20 million.

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

    Corrected.,

  • Reggie

    Brownstoner reports projected rents of $7,000-10,000 per month. I guess I won’t be putting my name on the waiting list.

  • Jorale-man

    We’re really seeing how big the Witness’s footprint was in the neighborhood – they had a much bigger presence than I realized. Meanwhile, the Bossert Hotel sits empty with no signs of life. I wonder what the story is there.

  • Andrew Porter

    One of the JWs involved in renovating the buildings when they bought it told me if they’d realized what bad shape it was in, they’d have passed on buying it. Apparently they had to replace all the steel inside. There were numerous places on the fire stairs where you could stick your hand through to the outside air, through cracks in the walls.

    One good thing: they installed central A/C, so you don’t get the sound of zillions of window air conditioners that you do from the St. George Tower.

    Here’s a photo of the building while under construction:

    https://uploads.disquscdn.com/images/6a9d62855d46109957c337a948f799b850909bd54418741606481e03e94b8d73.jpg

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

    That was then, I’ll be after selling it for 200M there are no regrets.

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

    I once heard an estimate that the JoHo’s occupied almost 20% of living space and their presence degraded the median income demographic, in the Heights.