Brooklyn Heights

Jehovah's Witnesses Put Yet Another Building on the Market in Brooklyn Heights

The 154,000-square-foot residential building in Brooklyn Heights could fetch as much as $185 million.

Photo of 107 Columbia Heights via Jehovah’s Witnesses

by Barbara Eldredge

04/28/2016 0

The same week developers Jared Kushner, Aby Rosen and LIVWRK announced they had a handshake deal to buy a pair of properties from the Jehovah’s Witnesses for $700 million, the Brooklyn-based religious organization put another of their prime Brooklyn Heights buildings on the market: 107 Columbia Heights.

The 154,000-square-foot residential building was constructed in 1959 as housing for volunteers working at the Witnesses headquarters just down the street, and was extensively renovated in 2007. In case you didn’t know, this is one of four structures connected by the group’s private underground tunnels.

Tucker Reed, president of the Downtown Brooklyn Partnership, predicted this nine-story property will likely sell for more than $1,000 per square foot, according to the Commercial Observer. A recent report from PropertyShark found the neighborhood’s median price per square foot to be $1,201. Doing the math, that comes to a building worth anywhere from $154 million to nearly $185 million.

A few factors to keep in mind: The building is in a landmark district and classified as a dormitory. It also greatly exceeds its allowable FAR, so is unlikely to be torn down. A developer might be interested in converting it into luxury condos, rentals or a hotel.

At one point, the Jehovah’s Witnesses owned more than two dozen prime properties in Brooklyn Heights, but they’ve slowly been selling off their holdings in advance of moving their operations upstate to Warwick, N.Y.