The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, the Jehovah’s Witnesses to its friends, has sold 50 Orange Street for $7.1 million. It and two Columbia Heights properties were put on the block in August: Continue Reading →
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Kingdom Come: NYT on Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn Heights
The New York Times reports on the Bossert Hotel, currently owned by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. The piece discusses how members of the religion, known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, become eligible for a stay in Brooklyn’s “Waldorf”. It also covers the fact that the Watchtower plans to move out of Brooklyn Heights over the next few years and how the sale of the Bossert plays into that.
The Brooklyn Heights Association’s executive director Judy Stanton cautions that Watchtower property sales may cause a major issue in the area. “Right now, we don’t have the schools capacity to support an influx of residents with children,” she says.
But most interestingly is this passage about some “regular” folk who still live there: Continue Reading →
To Serve Man: The Eagle on the Watchtower’s Slow Move Out
The Brooklyn Eagle sheds some light on the realities of the Watchtower’s planned move out of Brooklyn Heights to upstate Warwick, N.Y. A spokesperson for the group says the move won’t happen “anytime soon” as they’re still waiting for approval to construct more buildings.
One interesting passage closes the piece by Linda Collins regarding the group’s involvement in their rural community: Continue Reading →
Reasons to Get Excited About Watchtower Property Sale
Crain’s NY Business writes about how our local electeds and others are already licking their chops over the potential buyers, uses and tax revenue resulting from the sale of the Watchtower properties in Brooklyn Heights. Continue Reading →
Brooklyn Paper Ponders Brooklyn Bridge “Park” Plan
The Brooklyn Paper weighs in on the latest scheme to fund Brooklyn Bridge Park:
Brooklyn Paper: The deal calls for the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society’s holdings in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO to be rezoned for residential use — a change that real-estate experts believe will send the value of the Society’s properties well north of $1 billion.
“If they put them on the market now, they’ll be sold very quickly,” said Downtown real-estate broker Chris Havens.
The deal between Mayor Bloomberg and state officials will reduce the amount of luxury condos inside Brooklyn Bridge Park by capturing property taxes from the Watchtower properties after they are sold. The money will be diverted from the city general fund to pay for maintaining the world-class park at the foot of two wealthy neighborhoods — and that has green advocates seeing red.
Brooklyn Heights realtor Donald Brennan pondered the worth of the Watchtower portfolio in a BHB guest post last summer.
3 Watchtower Properties on the Block
Realtor Massey Knakal announced via press release this afternoon that they have been retained to sell 3 properties owned by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society in Brooklyn Heights. The buildings are 50 Orange Street, 183 Columbia Heights and 161 Columbia Heights. The three properties combined are being valued at $18.45 million dollars. They’ll be sold separately. Continue Reading →
Park Consultants Submit Final Report on Housing Alternatives
Bay Area Economics (“BAE”), the consultants hired by the board of the Brooklyn Bridge Park Corporation to study alternatives to housing in the park as sources of funding for park operations and maintenance, have submitted the final version of their report to the board’s Committee on Alternatives to Housing. The full text of the report can be found through a link on the Corporation’s website. The Report makes no specific recommendations concerning whether or not to build housing, but simply evaluates the revenue, and the risks concerning availbility of such revenue, that can be anticipated from various sources that were suggested and studied as alternatives to revenue from housing, and which the Committee deemed to be in accordance with the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding (“MOU”) under which the city agreed to take responsibility for construction, operation, and maintenance of the park; in particular, that no funds (other than payments in lieu of taxes, “PILOTs”, on the housing and hotel planned to be built on park land) that would otherwise accrue to the city’s general revenues would be diverted for park use. Continue Reading →
Post: Witness Buildings May Solve Park Funding Problem
Existing buildings owned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses could, it is suggested, be purchased by the City, converted to luxury condos, and the tax revenue they generate used to help fund Brooklyn Bridge Park maintenance.
New York Post: The Jehovah’s Witnesses could answer the prayers of locals fighting to keep more high-rise condos out of Brooklyn Bridge Park.
During a closed-door session at Borough Hall yesterday, some civic leaders and elected officials discussed having the city revise the waterfront park’s project plan to include dozens of DUMBO and Brooklyn Heights properties that the religious group has put up for sale.
The Post article credits Heights resident Tony Manheim with “leading this charge” to utilize revenues from the Witness buildings in lieu of those from newly built residential buildings within the Park itself.
A Look Inside the Bossert Hotel
The Bossert Hotel’s lobby is something very rarely seen by Brooklyn Heights residents who are not members of the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society. In 2008, it was part of the Brooklyn Heights Association’s Annual House Tour but that’s about it. The YouTube video after the jump by Michael R. Huff provides a brief peek inside its historic lobby. Continue Reading →
Watchtower Properties: $1 Billion? Really?
Brooklyn Heights resident and real estate broker Donald Brennan files this guest post:
After reading the ‘Real Deal on Watchtower Properties’ post here last week I got to thinking – a billion dollars, for 25 properties, where did that number come from? While I am aware of the impeccable condition of these properties, inside and out, my initial reaction was – that’s crazy! Isn’t it? Maybe not. Continue Reading →
Real Deal on Watchtower Properties
The Real Deal looks at the Watchtower’s Brooklyn Heights real estate holdings and speculates how much the organization could make once it decides to put its remaining properties here on the market:
The Real Deal: Over the next decades, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society, as it is officially known, bought up some incredibly valuable real estate as its operation expanded. Today, the organization’s portfolio totals 25 Brooklyn properties — brownstones, Beaux Arts multifamilies, modern high-rises and parking lots — that are said to be worth at least $1 billion.
But the Heights’ largest landlord may soon be its biggest property seller. Continuing a trend that started in 2004, when the Witnesses sold a warehouse that became the condo One Brooklyn Bridge Park, the group has been steadily downsizing in order to relocate upstate.
Indeed, the Witnesses have built a new printing plant in Wallkill in upstate New York, and an educational center across the river in Patterson. It’s also planning an $11.5 million facility in Warwick. If that proposal gets a green light and market conditions improve, a slew of properties in Brooklyn Heights, Downtown Brooklyn and Dumbo could soon change hands.
A nice spread detailing the properties after the jump: Continue Reading →
A View From Inside the Watchtower, Continued: Apocalypse Not
A View From Inside the Watchtower
A former Jehovah’s Witness, now a convert to Orthodox Catholicism, recounts his days as a “Bethelite” in the Witnesses’ Brooklyn Heights headquarters, here.
Watchtower Trick or Tracts in the North Heights
Sure the folks over at the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society aka Jehovah’s Witnesses don’t “celebrate” Halloween but they took to the streets of the North Heights this morning to “Trick or Tract”.
We’ve discussed the unneighborliness of Watchtower knocking in the Heights before and this morning’s doorbell ringing was no exception. While it was amusing to hear a woman on the intercom who sounded like Cloris Leachman in Young Frankenstein it was still an unnecessary violation of my personal space. So, Watchtower folks we’re sorry you’re bummed the world is ending soon but next time just Tweet us your “good news”.
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Hotel Bossert To Become Dorm Bossert
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?
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