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Is The Bossert Being Converted Back To The ‘Waldorf Astoria of Brooklyn’?

Is The Bossert Being Converted Back To The ‘Waldorf Astoria of Brooklyn’?

By on May 8, 2012 11:13 am in Architecture, Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn History, Government, Real Estate, Watchtower

Consider this a potential game-changer for Brooklyn Heights: The magnificent Bossert at 98 Montague Street, owned & maintained by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, is apparently returning to its original domain as a hotel. Brownstoner reported Tuesday that according to a Public Hearing notice sent out by Community Board Two, a variance application has been filed to allow “reconversion of the existing community facility hotel back to its original, transient hotel use.”

What remains unclear is whether the flip is a maneuver on the part of Jehovah’s Witnesses to find an interested buyer for the building. Continue Reading →

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Sold! Watchtower’s Residential 183 Columbia Heights Moves For $6.6M

Sold! Watchtower’s Residential 183 Columbia Heights Moves For $6.6M

By on April 24, 2012 10:49 am in Brooklyn Heights, Real Estate, Watchtower

As expected, a fourth Brooklyn Heights residential property on the market by the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society has sold. BHB reported in late March that 183 Columbia Heights, then asking $7.1 million, was close to contract after attracting 27 offers, according to the building’s listing agent Massey Knakal Realty Services.

The Real Deal reported Monday that an unidentified investor group has purchased the vacant 183 Columbia Heights between Clark and Pierrepoint streets for $6.6 million, 14% below the asking price. The group plans to turn the seven-story, 13-unit building, into luxury rentals. Continue Reading →

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161 Columbia: See Inside First On-The-Market Rental Unit

161 Columbia: See Inside First On-The-Market Rental Unit

By on April 19, 2012 1:46 pm in Real Estate, Watchtower

The Watchtower residential property at 161 Columbia Heights that sold March 20 for $3 million and returned to the market 10 days later as a rental is now being marketed by Ideal Properties Group, with the first interior images online for a 1-bedroom unit for $2,895/month.

The descriptor: “This spacious 1-bedroom apartment is newly renovated with hardwood flooring, stainless appliances and granite countertops in the kitchen, new vanity in the bathroom and oversized windows to let in lots of light. Continue Reading →

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10 Days After Closing, 161 Columbia Heights Returns To Market As Rental

10 Days After Closing, 161 Columbia Heights Returns To Market As Rental

By on March 29, 2012 3:33 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Development, Real Estate, Watchtower

The Watchtower residential property at 161 Columbia Heights that closed March 20 after a $3 million sale to investment and management firm Sugar Hill Capital Partners, is back on the market less than two weeks later as a rental. According to Curbed, after a quick renovation, the newly named five-story walk-up “161 Heights” offers Continue Reading →

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Sold! Third Of Eight Watchtower Properties In Heights Grabs $3M

Sold! Third Of Eight Watchtower Properties In Heights Grabs $3M

By on March 20, 2012 12:12 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Real Estate, Watchtower

The third of eight Brooklyn Heights residential properties on the market by the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society has bid “Amen” to owners Jehovah’s Witnesses. A five-story walk-up apartment building at 161 Columbia Heights sold for $3 million to investment and management firm Sugar Hill Capital Partners.

The listing was managed by Massey Knakal Realty Services, which also sold a Witnesses-owned multi-family building at 50 Orange Street, to the same buyer in January for $7.1 million.

The property at 161 Columbia “has been immaculately maintained since the prior owner purchased the property in 1988,” Knakal told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle. The 6,273-square-foot residential building, which has a cellar level providing an additional 1,240 square feet, contains seven fair-market, one rent-stabilized and two rent-controlled units. Continue Reading →

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Jehovah’s Witnesses Unload Columbia Heights Carriage House—$3M Under Asking

Jehovah’s Witnesses Unload Columbia Heights Carriage House—$3M Under Asking

By on February 14, 2012 2:54 pm in Brooklyn Heights, Real Estate, Watchtower

A second building in the Jehovah’s Witnesses Brooklyn Heights real estate collective has sold for $3 million less than its original asking price. Curbed reports that a 4,172-square-foot carriage house at 165 Columbia Heights Street (between Clark and Pierrepont streets), was asking $7.2 million in 2008, and sold for $4.1 million, according to city records. It comprises two apartments with a four-car garage. Continue Reading →

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Watchtower Sells Orange Street Building for $7.1 Million

By on January 3, 2012 7:11 pm in Real Estate, Watchtower

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

By on November 5, 2011 2:18 pm in Real Estate, Watchtower

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 →

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To Serve Man: The Eagle on the Watchtower’s Slow Move Out

By on October 24, 2011 7:36 pm in Watchtower

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 →

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Reasons to Get Excited About Watchtower Property Sale

Reasons to Get Excited About Watchtower Property Sale

By on October 16, 2011 10:09 am in Real Estate, Watchtower

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 →

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Brooklyn Paper Ponders Brooklyn Bridge “Park” Plan

By on August 11, 2011 10:26 am in Real Estate, Watchtower

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.

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3 Watchtower Properties on the Block

By on August 3, 2011 3:13 pm in Real Estate, Watchtower

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 →

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Park Consultants Submit Final Report on Housing Alternatives

By on June 10, 2011 10:31 am in brooklyn bridge park, Development, News, Real Estate, Watchtower

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 →

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Post: Witness Buildings May Solve Park Funding Problem

By on October 7, 2010 9:54 am in brooklyn bridge park, Watchtower

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.

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A Look Inside the Bossert Hotel

A Look Inside the Bossert Hotel

By on September 18, 2010 7:29 pm in History, Landmark Preservation, Watchtower

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 →

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