The Brooklyn Eagle reports that The Kushner Cos. have dropped out of a deal to buy 90 Sands St. (photo), a building owned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses. Kushner Cos. has purchased a handful of properties that used to belong to the religious organization.

The company, which was headed by Jared Kushner until he stepped away to serve as senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, and its investment partners agreed in 2013 to purchase 90 Sands St. as part of a package of Watchtower properties.

The plan was for the Jehovah’s Witnesses to continue to use the hotel until 2017, then close on its sale.

Now, one of Kushner Cos.’ investment partners, RFR, has made the hotel purchase on its own.

According to the article, Kushner Cos. and its investment partners have spent $1 billion on purchases of Watchtower properties.

Get the full story at the Eagle…

Photo: C. Scales for BHB.

The Eagle reports that L.A. based real estate investors Hawkins Way Capital have bought 117 Columbia Heights (photo), a Brutalist intrusion, by Ulrich Franzen, into a row of nineteenth century townhouses, three of which were also bought by Hawkins from Watchtower and, like 117, became residences for Witnesses.

The sale seems to indicate that the last of the major Watchtower properties in the Heights, with the exception of the former Leverich Towers Hotel, which remains on the market, have been sold.

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….

The Real Deal reports that the Jehovah’s Witnesses are putting another of their Brooklyn Heights properties up for sale: the nine story, presently 161 unit residential building at 107 Columbia Heights, which sits at the southeast corner of Columbia Heights and Cranberry Street. The piece quotes Tucker Reed, of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, as estimating that the building could fetch around $154 million. BHB reader Andrew Porter posted this comment on the Real Deal story:

Really ugly modernist building with non-traditional window arrangement. The best thing going for it is the lovely garden and fountain entrance on the Columbia Heights side, which is the actual entrance.

Photo by moi for BHB.

“There is only one possible use, and that’s luxury condominiums.”

So proclaimed David Lombino, the director of special projects for Two Trees, in a New York Times story published last weekend and accompanied by stunning photographs of the landscape currently inhabited by the Jehovah’s Witness complex that straddles Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO.

His conclusion is hardly a surprise, given the location of the JW properties and the Brooklyn real estate, and the article doesn’t spend much time analyzing the effects of the thousands of residents that will likely occupy the buildings and land currently on the market.

“Everyone in the world will be taking a look at them,” said Tucker Reed, the president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, a local development corporation. “The barrier to entry for a lot of those folks will be how high land values have gone. I’m sure they will fetch a very high sales price.” Mr. Reed estimated the value of the three properties being marketed as “somewhere between $850 million to $1 billion.”

Among the properties available is a three-acre parking lot on Jay Street the development of which will not require a public review process and that could on its own, according to the article, eventually house 1,000 residents.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses began divesting their local properties more than a decade ago, beginning with the building that became One Brooklyn Bridge.

And while the article doesn’t examine future effects of the development, it does cast an approving eye on the Witnesses’ presence in the bad old days of the neighborhood, when DUMBO was a scary place inhabited by packs of roaming feral dogs.

And it estimates that once the properties return to the city’s tax rolls, they could bring in up to nearly $7 million annually.

Read the full story…

The Real Deal is reporting that the Jehovah’s Witnesses have three more of their local properties on the market, including their flagship building at 25-30 Columbia Heights.

The properties being marketed are a 135,000-square-foot development site at 85 Jay Street in Dumbo, a residential building at 124 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn Heights and Jehovah’s Witnesses’ current world headquarters at 25-30 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn Heights.

The three properties are expected to sell in separate transactions, the religious organization said, though it declined to provide an asking price for either of the buildings or the development site.

Read the full story at The Real Deal.

(Photo credit Joe Mabel via Wikicommons)

The Brooklyn Daily Eagle’s “Eye on Real Estate” has been following the progress of The Hotel Bossert gut-renovation.  The project underway is to include 279 guest rooms and a rooftop restaurant.  Back in March they reported the “Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn” re-opening had been pushed back to this summer.  Yet, here we are one week away from Labor day and the remodeling of the former Jehovah’s Witnesses property seems no closer to completion.  A follow up post from August 26th reports inquiries by the Eagle vetted this response from co-owner David Bistricer, “We are moving full blast.”

Construction Permits

While the hotel has widely been described as a harbinger of increased retail and restaurant revenues, Curbed recently reported on a “glut” of hotels being built in Brooklyn.  The July 24th article sites a new report from Bloomberg Business, “there are 32 hotel properties planned or under construction in Brooklyn, but according to analyst David Loeb of Robert W. Baird & Co., developers are facing declining occupancies there as room costs decrease in Manhattan.”   As of March of this year, Bossert co-owners Bistricer and developer Joseph Chetrit had not named a hotel operator.

The Brooklyn Eagle posted a video today exploring the fate of the remaining Watchtower properties in the Brookyn Heights area. Jared Kushner acquired a chunk of their portfolio last year and reporter Dipti Kumar ponders what the future holds.

The Brooklyn Eagle did a little digging around and filed a report on what could happen to the Watchtower’s infamous underground tunnels once they finish selling off their properties in Brooklyn Heights.

The organization currently has a deal with the NYC DOT to operate the passageways under Orange Street, Columbia Heights and Willow Street.

Brooklyn Eagle: So what will become of the tunnels when the Witnesses sell their spectacularly situated buildings at 97, 107, 119 and 124 Columbia Heights and 21 Clark St. and move to upstate Warwick, where they are constructing a new headquarters?

They will be probably be shut down, one real estate source thinks.

Buyers will find the buildings too pricey to turn into student housing – for which tunnels would be useful – and most likely will convert them to condos. The last thing residents of a pricey condo building want is to provide other people underground access to their property.

“There would be the issue of security,” the source said.

The Watchtower doesn’t own the tunnels and can’t transfer its right to use them without the city agencies’ written consent.

“I think the DOT would not transfer the rights to the tunnels,” the source said.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have posted a video explaining their move from Brooklyn Heights to Warwick, New York. Also featured in the clip is real estate mogul Jared Kushner who purchased several Watchtower properties in DUMBO with an eye towards creating a hub for Brooklyn based tech companies.

As Jared Kushner closes his deal for several Watchtower properties in DUMBO, the Brooklyn Eagle reports on the group’s plan move their operations upstate.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses have been in the Brooklyn Heights area since 1908 and their headquarters here is referred to as “Brooklyn Bethel”.

Brooklyn Eagle: The Brooklyn market is “super-hot” and “competition would be huge” for the remaining Watchtower properties, real estate executives told the Brooklyn Daily Eagle.

Richard Devine, chairman of the Witnesses’ construction project committee, gave no hints about the religious organization’s timetable for selling the Brooklyn holdings but did provide addresses.

In May 2012, BHB wrote about an appreciable renaissance taking place along the Montague Street retail corridor, during which a dozen new businesses moved in along the avenue over the year preceding. Another snapshot of Brooklyn Heights “Main Street” this week reveals that Montague remains a bustling success story, with restaurants, spas, bodegas, bakeries and clothiers—and only three retail spaces currently awaiting tenants.

The three vacated spaces:
* 112 Montague Street, which held Starbucks until May 2012, holds the record for the longest-running currently vacated space. The coffee shop relocated to 134 Montague, and today, broker Massey Knakal continues to push the 2-story space, with a recently hung banner that covers the entire second-floor window. The realtor’s website listing notes that it offers 2,500sf on the ground floor and 2,000sf on both the second and basement levels, with “all uses considered.” Remember when it was a swanky Italian restaurant in the mid-1990s?

* In November 2012, St. Mark’s Comics at 148 Montague closed its doors after 24 years. A staffer told BHB then that the building owner hiked the rent beyond its means. Four months later, it remains empty. “No food” is posted on the window of the second-floor space.

* Women’s apparel boutique Ruby and Jenna opened last May at 130 Montague, above beauty salon Dashing Diva (and previously occupied by Migita Sushi). It shuttered March 10, 2013.

In addition:
* The long-empty space at 132 Montague Street, below Heights Vision Center, which housed a combo car service/cigar shop several years ago, is destined to open this spring as locally run Spanish tapas & wine bar “Taperia.” Bobby Cruz, former owner of the UPS Store on Montague, will be one of the new eatery’s managers. Alongside a roomy bar and seating within the surprisingly spacious interior, the restaurant will offer an outdoor dining patio, which backs up to Our Lady Lebanon Cathedral on Remsen Street.

And among new businesses since our previous report:
* In November 2012, Ani Sushi opened at 142 Montague after a lengthy build-out that took some five months. The second-floor space has held a revolving door of restaurants, including Oh My Pasta!, Taze Turkish restaurant and Kapadokya. Aerosoles has been grounded on the first level for more than a decade.

* Of course, the biggest news along Montague Street remains the soon-to-open to the public Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague, which was sold by Jehovah’s Witnesses to David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit for $81 million in November 2012. It is scheduled to open its doors for biz this summer. The 14-story property will update rooms with new design finishes and amenities, and restore the Marine Roof to a restaurant and lounge.

Meanwhile, over the past year or so, we’ve seen the launch of:
* Dellarocco’s of Brooklyn brick-oven pizzeria and bar around the corner from Montague at 214-216 Hicks Street, operated by Brooklyn-bred brothers Greg and Glenn Markman and Joseph Secondino.
* Across the street, the three narrow retail spaces remain filled, which has certainly not been the case for the long term: At 89 Montague is bodega Heights Deli & Convenience, which opened in April 2010… At 91 Montague is Excellence Threading Salon, which opened in December 2012, in the footsteps of Jeffrey Stein Concept Hair Salon and Dimples Kids Spa… And at 93 Montague, since February 2012, is VIP Nails & Salon.
* Le Pain Quotidien at 121 Montague opened in mid-April 2012, after previous Jennifer Convertibles closed in April 2010, leaving the space empty for two years. Business is booming.
* Irish pub Custom House opened at 139 Montague in June 2012, in the former space of La Traviata, which closed in November 2011.
* Area Yoga & Spa Center‘s second location opened on the second floor of 144 Montague, above Bentley’s shoes in May 2012, in the former location of Spring Thyme spa.
* Vietnamese “Bubble Tea & Vietnamese Sandwich” shop Hanco’s opened at 147 Montague in September 2011, and remains a runaway success. The retail space was dark for years, after the closure of previous tenant Mr. Souvlaki.

And there you have it… Success! (Photos: CT)

The Bossert Hotel could begin receiving hotel guests at 98 Montague Street as early as this summer, according to a report from the Architect’s Newpaper—as long as construction remains on schedule. That includes preserving the facade, lobby and reception area, updating the rooms with new design finishes and amenities, and restoring the Marine Roof to a restaurant and lounge.

On January 8, the Board of Standards & Appeals unanimously approved a request for variance to change the Certificate of Occupancy for “transient hotel use, accessory hotel use and commercial use,” officially allowing the building to open its doors as a hotel once again.

David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit closed on the 103-year-old, 14-story property, for $81 million in November. Since the 1980s, the building had been owned the Jehovah’s Witnesses and used as a community facility. At the time of purchase, Bistricer said the hotel would remain independent and maintain the name of original developer, lumber mogul Louis Bossert.

On Tuesday January 8, the Board of Standards & Appeals unanimously ruled to approve a request for variance to change the Certificate of Occupancy at the Bossert Hotel for transient hotel use, accessory hotel use and commercial use at 98 Montague Street. That means that following its sale last year by the Jehovah’s Witnesses to David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit for $81 million, it’s a go to convert it (back) into a high-end hotel property.

The new owners have their eye on 280 rooms, a rooftop restaurant and terrace, and a ground floor restaurant and meeting rooms.

So much for the concerns of some residents at 200 Hicks Street who expressed concern last May that the conversion would “create serious noise, traffic and safety issues” in the vicinity. (Photo: CT)

This piece has been revised by the publisher since initial posting.

BHB reported in late July that another property in the Jehovah’s Witnesses real estate portfolio had hit the marketplace: the beautiful five-story, 5,088sf residential brownstone at 67 Remsen Street—which ironically backs up to the organization’s recently sold Bossert Hotel. Brownstoner shares that the Brooklyn Heights building has sold for $3.25M, just a shaving from its asking price of $3.4M.

It features 10 units, a private garden and will be delivered vacant, according to David Schechtman of marketing firm Eastern Consolidated. The Real Deal reported in July that the building housed students and volunteers associated with the Watchtower Society. As the Witnesses move forward with a planned relocation upstate, the residences were no longer necessary, he said.

In all, Johovah’s Witnesses’ portfolio included 25 properties in Brooklyn, which they began selling off two years ago. Other recent sales include 183 Columbia Heights, 161 Columbia Heights and 50 Orange Street. (Photos: Chuck Taylor)

A handful of guests at the Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street witnessed one of the best views in Brooklyn Heights last Sunday evening, from the soon-to-be former Watchtower property’s 14th-story “Marine Roof” balcony. Check out the sunset they saw below the jump.
(Photos: Chuck Taylor)

A group of concerned residents who reside at 200 Hicks Street are taking to task the new owners of the Bossert Hotel at 98 Montague Street. Brooklyn Heights rez Elizabeth Bailey and her comrades believe the conversion plan currently before the Bureau of Standard and Appeals could create serious noise, traffic and safety issues in the area.

She writes to the Brooklyn Heights Blog: “Although residents of Brooklyn are happy, mostly, about our borough’s resurgence, or rather, emergence, those of us who live here because it is a quiet, safe place to live and bring up children, are worried that these developers are showing little regard to neighborhood concerns.”

New owners David Bistricer and Joseph Chetrit are seeking a variance to convert the hotel to a “commercial transient facility,” from its status as visitor housing for previous owner Jehovah’s Witnesses. The BSA has scheduled a hearing on the application September 11.

The group of residents at 200 Hicks, located at the northwest corner of Montague, say that the plan could deter the Heights’ peaceful persona “if it is done without regard to the nature and character of our residential community.” Bailey points to a New York Times feature on the Bossert from November 2011, in which Brooklyn Heights Association executive director Judy Stanton notes concerns about upkeep, “since Watchtower society placed a premium on maintenance, including the surrounding sidewalks and parks.” Stanton also intimates that the neighborhood may become livelier if the Bossert is converted into a high-end hotel.

Bailey writes, “The developers are proposing to increase the number of rooms from 224 to 302. Although they speak of creating a boutique hotel, over 300 rooms is a pretty big boutique. They also have plans to build a ground floor restaurant, event spaces (weddings and bar mitzvahs, etc.) and a bar on the rooftop. The developers contend that the increase in traffic on the busy corner of Montague and Hicks from their proposed hotel will be negligible.” She finds this “hard to believe.”

“There have been many articles in the New York press about the negative impact of noisy bars—particularly rooftop bars—on residential neighborhoods,” Bailey adds, citing Times’ stories here and here.

“We understand from press reports that both Chetrit and Bistricer have been publicly criticized for various aspects of their past real estate ventures. Among other controversial matters, Chetrit is one of the investors in the Empire Hotel near Lincoln Center, which has been the subject of a three-year battle that a West 62nd Street coop had to wage in the courts over ‘torment’ from the noise from its rooftop bar well after midnight,” Bailey says. “The developers are also involved with the Chelsea Hotel, which has been the subject of recent controversy. Noise and traffic: That’s what Brooklyn Heights residents are worried about.”

The 200 Hicks Street group proposes that restrictions be put in place on the proposed hotel/bar: “The aim is to limit the increase in noise and traffic that would compromise the safety and the character of this neighborhood.” Bailey invites public discourse of the issue, and is available via email at Elizaabailey@mac.com.

Comments from the BHB community?

Another Brooklyn Heights property in the Jehovah’s Witnesses real estate portfolio has hit the marketplace. A five-story, 5,088-square-foot residential building at 67 Remsen Street—ironically, abutting the back of organization’s recently sold Bossert Hotel—is asking $3.4M. It features 10 units, a private garden and will be delivered vacant, according to David Schechtman of marketing firm Eastern Consolidated. He adds it could be converted to a single-family home.

The Real Deal reports that the building previously housed students and volunteers associated with the religious group’s Watchtower Society. As the Jehovah’s Witnesses move forward with their planned relocation upstate to Warwick, N.Y., and Patterson, N.Y., the residences were no longer necessary, Schechtman says.

The group’s mammoth portfolio of buildings have been marketed variously by Massey Knakal, Cushman & Wakefield’s Nat Rockett, and now, Eastern. “Engaging a third firm is a sign that the religious group has decided now is the time to divest from their properties,” a source told The Real Deal. The group owned 25 Brooklyn buildings before they began selling them off two years ago.

If left a multi-family dwelling, the net operating income at the building would be about $140,000 a year, documents obtained by The Real Deal show, although “a well-maintained single-family home might be a bigger draw” in the Heights. A 3-bedroom townhouse down the street at 12 College Place recently went into contract for $4.85M, Streeteasy cites.

“Inside of a million [in construction costs], you could easily have one of the nicest townhouses you will ever see,” Schechtman told the newspaper.

(Photos: Chuck Taylor)

During the Community Board 2 Land Use Committee hearing June 20, the Bossert was approved to return to its status as a hotel (it now goes before the full Board). Among plans that buyer David Bistricer has in mind for the newly “sophisticated and upscale” hotel are a first-class restaurant and intimate dining on the rooftop. The photo above—taken from the roof of 62 Montague Street—offers a vista of the west side showing the immensity of the 14-story Hotel Bossert, as well as the rooftop area (larger image below the jump).

The Bossert at 98 Montague Street was built in 1909 by Brooklyn lumber magnate Louis Bossert as an apartment hotel and, in fact, housed a number of the Brooklyn Dodgers in the 1950s. During the 1920s, its Marine Roof offered a two-level restaurant showcasing a consummate view of Manhattan and much of Brooklyn. According to The New York Times, former presidents, mayors, governors and debutantes flocked to the restaurant, designed to look like a two-tiered promenade deck of a ship. In 1949, the Bossert’s rooftop destination closed due to disrepair.

As is well known in the Brooklyn Heights neighborhood, the Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower Society began leasing the building in 1983 and bought it five years later. The organization restored the property to Landmarks standards, including the roof, which had collapsed, as well as its ornate 2,500sf lobby, which includes five custom chandeliers and a series of three-story marble columns (which Bistricer maintains he will not touch).

The Times article says that Jehovah’s members who have proselytized or completed international missionary work, have been eligible for up to three nights of accommodations free of charge, three meals included.
Above: The view looking west from on high…
(Photos: Chuck Taylor; lobby: New York Times; lower lobby: BHB)

Reminder: A notice has been sent to all residents within 400 square feet of the Bossert Hotel, alerting them to the application filed with the Board of Standards and Appeals (BSA) to allow reconversion to its “original transient hotel use.” The Bossert at 98 Montague Street is currently zoned outside of such a commercial zone. As reported on BHB May 14, following its recent purchase for $90M+, developer David Bistricer intends to turn the former Watchtower-owned Bossert into a 302-unit hotel.

The presentation and Q&A takes place at the Land Use Commity of Community Board 2, today, Wednesday June 20 at 6 p.m. at the Polyechnic Institute, Dibner Library, Room LC 400 at 5 Metrotech Center.

At the meeting, the Land Use committee will review the application and is expected to vote on a formal recommendation to the BSA. Pre-register for the hearing at 718-596-5410, if interested in speaking.

It appears that Johovah’s Witnesses don’t just own established properties within the boundaries of Brooklyn Heights. Crain’s and The Real Deal report that the religious group has commissioned Cushman & Wakefield to sniff out a buyer for three adjacent undeveloped lots in nearby DUMBO.

The parcels, at 173 and 177 Front Street—both vacant—and 200 Water Street—currently with a warehouse present—comprise 30,463 square feet that can be built up to 150,000 square feet for residential, commercial or hotel developments. All are between Jay and Bridge streets.

This is the first empty land the Witnesses have brought to the market, including the recently sold Bossert Hotel, 183 Columbia Heights and 161 Columbia Heights.

(Photo: The Real Deal)

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.

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 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.

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.