The Hotel Bossert could be open by the end of the summer.

It will be managed by the group behind the Tillary Hotel. Aliya Huey, the General Manager of the Tillary Hotel, presented in front of the Community Board 2’s Health, Environment and Social Services Committee Wednesday night in preparation for a liquor license application. The committee recommended their approval.

She said that they are aiming for a soft opening at the end of August, with an official opening in September.

hotel bossert brooklyn
The building in 2018

The liquor license will cover a restaurant on the ground floor and a bar in the lobby (which will have live piano music), two ballrooms (used for weddings and other events) and a bar on the 14th floor that has both indoor and outdoor seating.

No music is planned for the outdoor area, which will close at 10 p.m. every night, Huey told the community board. The indoor area of the 14th floor will close at 11 p.m., while the restaurant and bar downstairs will close at midnight.

She did not elaborate on the format, menu or name of the restaurant.

This has been a long time coming. The once-glamorous hotel and its rooftop bar was a favorite watering hole for the Brooklyn Dodgers but hit hard times before being bought in 1988 by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which used it for housing. The religious organization sold it to David Bistricer of Clipper Equity and Joseph Chetrit of Chetrit Group for $81 million in 2012, who said they planned to renovate and open a boutique hotel. The opening of the hotel has been delayed several times.

Chetrit has bought out his former partner, Bistricer told Brownstoner last week. He declined to disclose the price. The building’s temporary certificate of occupancy expired in February 2019, building department records show.

brooklyn architecture hotel bossert 98 montague street
The building in 2017

There was concern among some of the community board members regarding past complaints from local residents against the Tillary Hotel, a boutique hotel nearby in Downtown Brooklyn, and their ability to manage the Bossert without issue.

“We’re very close with the community,” Huey said, mentioning that she plans to meet with the Brooklyn Heights Association a few days later. The Tillary Hotel, she added, attracted a younger crowd. “At the Bossert, the goal would be higher rates, more corporate clients — we’re aiming toward a five-star hotel.”

[Photos by Susan De Vries]

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