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. It was first put on the market in 2008, just as the economy flatlined. A $90 million bid fell through, and the property has failed to draw serious interest since.

The religious group bought the Bossert in 1988 and meticulously returned the majestic 14-story building to world-class grandeur—restoring its one-time reputation as the “Waldorf Astoria of Brooklyn.” Currently, it is utilized as free lodging for Jehovah’s Witnesses visiting and studying at Brooklyn Heights’ Watchtower. The 200,000-square-foot building is configured into 224 apartments.

The Hotel Bossert was built in 1909 by Louis Bossert, a Brooklyn lumber magnate and opened as an “apartment hotel.” During the 1920s, it was known for its two-level rooftop restaurant that provided panoramic Manhattan views. In the 1950s, the Bossert was home to several Brooklyn Dodger players, and following the team’s win over the New York Yankees in the 1955 World Series, Dodgers fans and players notoriously gathered in the lobby.

A public hearing will be held Wednesday, May 16 at 6 p.m. at the Dibner Library at 5 Metrotech Center.

(Top photo: Josh Derr; Below: BHB)

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.

The Witnesses have owned 183 Columbia Heights since 1986, according to public records, as noted by Crain’s New York Business. The property features 10-foot ceilings, a bike room and laundry room. David Mitchell, a managing member of the group, said they will invest an undisclosed amount of money into work in the building, before leasing begins this summer.

“Our clients were very pleased with the results,” Massey Knakal Chairman Bob Knakal told Crain’s. The firm has marketed three Jehovah’s Witnesses properties: 161 Columbia Heights, which Sugar Hill Capital Partners purchased for $3 million earlier this year; and
50 Orange Street, which sold for $7.1 million in January.

(Photo: Brownstoner)

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. There is laundry and storage available in the basement. This beautiful building holds all charm that one could hope for in Brooklyn Heights while enjoying modern amenities.” The unit comprises living room, bedroom, kitchen and bath.

The newly named “161 Heights,” comprises 6,273 sf in the five-story walk-up, and offers one bedrooms starting at $2,895 a month; one studio for $1,995 a month; and one 2BR, asking $4,100.

In addition to seven fair-market apartments, the building has one rent-stabilized and two rent-controlled units. See the property’s website here. The listing is managed by Massey Knakal Realty Services, which also sold a Johovah’s Witnesses-owned multi-residence at 50 Orange Street, to buyer Sugar Hill Capital Partners in January for $7.1 million. The Ideal Properties agent is Michael Colombo.

(Photos: Ideal Properties Group)

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 one bedrooms starting at $2,995 a month; one studio for $1,995 a month; and one 2BR, asking $4,100. Amenities include laundry and storage space. Occupancy begins 4/1.

The listing is managed by Massey Knakal Realty Services, which also sold a Johovah’s Witnesses-owned multi-residence at 50 Orange Street, to the same buyer in January for $7.1 million. At closing, Knakal told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle that 161 Columbia “has been immaculately maintained since the prior owner purchased the property in 1988.”

In all, the 6,273-square-foot building contains seven fair-market, one rent-stabilized and two rent-controlled units. See the property’s website here.
(Building photo: Brownstoner)

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.

Knakal’s one remaining listing, 183 Columbia Heights—a seven-story apartment building with 13 apartments, asking $7.1 million—is currently under contract and should close within a month, Knakal said. That property attracted 27 offers.

Corcoran Group Brooklyn has the other five listings, one of which sold in February: a carriage house at 165 Columbia Heights for $4.1 million. Agent Ellen Newman is handling those listings with colleague Lisa Detwiler.

Prior to these three sales, the Eagle says that Watchtower owned 34 properties totaling 3.4 million square feet that it intends to dispose of in the Heights and DUMBO: four parking lots, 17 residential buildings and 13 buildings in manufacturing zones, including its world headquarters complex at 25 and 30 Columbia Heights and a tower at 90 Sands St. that is zoned as a hotel.

(Photo: Brooklyn Daily Eagle)

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. The buyer is a trust in the names of Anita Driscoll Feiger and George Feiger. Corcoran brokered the deal.

The Watchtower folks are currently peddling seven more Brooklyn Heights properties, which have a combined asking price of $18.8 million, in preparation for their move to a new compound in Warwick, N.Y. The first property in the portfolio to sell, 50 Orange Street, moved for $7.1 million in January, with an original asking price of $7.4 million.

Still on the market: two townhouses on Orange and Willow streets; two brownstones on Willow and Remsen streets; a 20-unit apartment building on Orange Street; and a 13-unit and seven-unit building on Columbia Heights.

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:

Crain’s: The first of several properties in Brooklyn Heights that were recently put on the market by the Jehovah’s Witnesses has been sold. The price paid was $7.1 million, slightly under its asking price, according to Massey Knakal Realty Services, the brokerage that was retained to sell three of the Witnesses’ buildings valued at a total of $18.45 million in the neighborhood.
The five-story, 20-unit elevator building at 50 Orange St. was sold in an all cash deal, said Robert Knakal, chairman of the brokerage. The sale closed on Dec. 13. The Jehovah Witnesses’ business arm, the nonprofit Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, bought the property for an undisclosed sum in 1988 and used it as a residence for the members of its religious order. Last year, the group, which is thinking about moving its headquarters upstate, decided to sell the property along with seven other buildings, ranging from a carriage house to a seven-story apartment building.
The new owner of 50 Orange St. was not disclosed. A spokesman for Jehovah’s Witnesses confirmed the sale, but referred further comment to Mr. Knakal.

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:

NYT: The group took over the building in a state of disrepair in 1983, renovated it in 1988, and in summer 2010, turned it into a 224-room hotel. Five residents who lived there before 1983 remain in their apartments, Mr. Devine said.

“We’re just extras,” said one of them, Monica Grier, 83, laughing.

Ms. Grier, originally from England, moved into the two-bedroom apartment on the 11th floor with her husband, George, in 1956. She is grateful for the infusion of polite activity, recalling the female screams she heard when part of the building was a seedy single-room occupancy hotel. Until last summer, the hallways were mostly silent except during the Witnesses’ special events.

When her husband died in 1988, she decided to stay. She first paid $300 in rent; now she pays $800. She said staff members treated her well and had not tried to proselytize to her.

Daisy Diamontopulos, 80, who has lived on the 10th floor since 1965, said the same. “I am a Roman Catholic and that doesn’t bother them,” she said. “I put my Christmas decorations on the wall. They come to my home, they invite us to theirs.”

Both she and Ms. Grier hope they will be able to stay through whatever incarnation is next for the Bossert.

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:

Brooklyn Eagle: The organization is also known for helping its surrounding neighborhood, which included building a park in Brooklyn.

The Times Herald-Record reported that in the Ulster County town of Shawangunk, where the Witnesses have property in the hamlet of Wallkill, they helped the town demolish and rebuild its town hall.

The organization has its printing facilities in Wallkill as well as a farm.

“We do beef farming for the table and also fruits and vegetables that grow well up there,” Devine said.

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.

Crain’s NY Business: “There is great potential here to transform the surrounding neighborhoods,” said Marty Markowitz, Brooklyn borough president.
Even with the sale likely a few years away, he and others are dreaming big about what could be. For the city, the sales could return the holdings of the largest landlord in Brooklyn Heights and vicinity—the nonprofit Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, the Witnesses’ business arm—to the city’s tax rolls. The move could net City Hall millions of dollars a year in revenue.
Meanwhile, backers of the nearby Brooklyn Bridge Park have already tentatively factored the sale of some of the Witnesses’ properties into the park’s long-range funding plans, and developers are eyeing the possibility of vast amounts of new housing and office space. The Witnesses themselves offer some other suggestions.
“These would be good for universities or a senior-housing operator,” said Richard Devine, a spokesman for the Witnesses, referring to half a dozen buildings linked by brightly lit, spotless tunnels that the Witnesses dug over the last 35 years.

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.

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.

MK Press Release: Located in the heart of Brooklyn Heights on the southeast corner of Orange and Hicks Streets, 50 Orange Street is a five-story elevatored apartment building containing a total of 20 residential units. Of the 20 units, 10 are studios and 10 are one-bedroom units. The building is approximately 15,355 gross square feet including the cellar. In 2006, a renovation of the property was completed including the installation of a new elevator and central heating and air-conditioning system. The property also features views of the Manhattan skyline, harbor, and bridges from the upper floors.
The building will be delivered vacant, which is rare for this size and location, making this property ideal for an institutional level user or an investor as it can be immediately rented at market levels or converted to condominium ownership. The asking price is $7,350,000.

183 Columbia Heights is a seven-story elevatored apartment building which will also be delivered vacant. It is located between Clark and Pierrepoint Streets just steps from the Brooklyn waterfront promenade. The gorgeous residential building has been immaculately maintained and features 10’ ceilings, storage space, a bike room and laundry room. Additionally, the property features stunning unobstructed views of the Manhattan skyline, harbor, and bridges from the upper floors. The building is approximately 15,158 gross square feet including the cellar and consists of 13 fair
market apartments. The asking price is $7,650,000.

Just a few buildings away is a beautiful five-story townhouse located at 161 Columbia Heights, which consists of seven fair market units, one rent stabilized unit and two rent controlled units. The building is approximately 7,513 gross square feet including the cellar. The property is an excellent candidate for an owner user who wishes to live in a portion of the building while receiving income from the remaining apartments. The asking price is $3,450,000.

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.

Based on its study, BAE concluded that the annual revenue to be anticipated from the alternative sources, taking into account risk factors, ranges from $2,421,000 on the most conservative assumptions to $6,951,000 on the most optimistic ones. (See page iii of the Report; these amounts are the same as in BAE’s draft report–see here.) The largest part of this ($1 million on a conservative basis; $4 million on an optimistic view) would come from creation of a Park Improvement District, which would levy a fee on properties (both business and residential) located near the park. Creation of such a District would require approval of a majority of the affected property owners. No revenues were anticipated from conversion of the Watchtower properties because of uncertainty concerning Watchtower’s willingness to pay for expedited land use review, which was the one source of revenue (apart from a potential one-time payment in consideration for redesign of the hotel planned for the Pier 1 upland so as to improve the view from apartments in the Watchtower complex) that was considered to meet the requirements of the MOU. Proposals to allow PILOTs, or similar levies, on the Watchtower properties were dismissed as violating the terms of the MOU. (See pages vii-viii.)

The projected revenues from the alternative sources, even on the most optimistic assumptions, would be far less than the anticipated annual operational and maintenance expenses of $16 million (see page 11). Therefore, if the conclusions of the BAE study are accepted, alternative sources can at best be expected to reduce somewhat the scale of housing needed to supply revenues for the park.

The Committee on Alternatives to Housing will meet this coming Tuesday, June 14, at 2:00 p.m., on the first floor of the Brooklyn Public Library, Brooklyn Heights Branch, 280 Cadman Plaza West, to consider whether to submit BAE’s report to the full board. The public is invited to attend, but no comments from the public will be entertained. Public comments were received for a period following submission of the draft report in February until April 23 (see here).

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.

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.

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.

In order to get a feel for what the estimated billion dollar price tag relates to in a more tangible metric I set out to determine the price per square foot for the portfolio.  I broke the properties down into three general categories – non-residential, residential and residential development – determined the approximate size of each property and derived a dollar per square foot value for each category based on recent comparable market transactions and the Watchtower’s own transaction record of previously owned properties.  The blended per square foot price works out to $260, which sounds low, doesn’t it?  So while we are in the middle of one of the biggest deleveraging cycles ever, the $1 Billion estimate may be understated.

So if market conditions do improve the portfolio may be worth more than a billion dollars.  And if there isn’t any improvement, well then they are still sitting on $1,000,000,000 of prime Brooklyn real estate.  Not the worst thing.

Brooklyn Heights resident and broker Donald Brennan hosts informal real estate discussions at his  home on the third Tuesday of each month. The next session is August17. Visit his website to RSVP and  for more information.

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:

44-45

“Orthocath” continues his story of life as a “Bethelite” in 1970s Brooklyn Heights here. In this installment, he tells of the passing of the fateful prediction for 1975, as well as of the acquisition of the Towers Hotel and the digging of a tunnel.

A former Jehovah’s Witness, now a convert to Orthodox Catholicism, recounts his days as a “Bethelite” in the Witnesses’ Brooklyn Heights headquarters, here.

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”.

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?

Brownstoner is reporting that The Watchtower Group has agreed to sell the Bossert Hotel [98 Montague Street] to Robert A. Levine, the developer behind condos at One Brooklyn Bridge Park. A tipster tells the site that the selling price is “north of $100 million”. Representatives for the developer would not comment on the sale to Brownstoner.

Update: Brownstoner is reporting the sale price now as $90 million and that the Bossert may be used for student housing “at least” in the short term.

The lobby of the Bossert will be part of this Saturday’s Brooklyn Heights Association House Tour.

Flickr photo by Josh Derr