The Bossert Hotel
The Bossert Hotel in Brooklyn Heights could make a comeback as a hotel, the New York Post reported. The Jehovah’s Witnesses own the property, located at 98 Montague Street, and will bring a proposal to Community Board 2 and the Board of Standards and Appeals next week seeking a zoning change for the hotel to cash in on this part of their building portfolio as they move upstate. [more]
Bob Knakal and 183 Columbia Heights
An unidentified investor group has purchased the last remaining Jehovah’s Witnesses property that Massey Knakal Realty Services marketed for $6.6 million, Crain’s reported, 14 percent below the asking price. The group plans to turn the seven-story, 13-unit building, located at 183 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn Heights, into luxury rentals with leasing expected to begin this summer.
“Our clients were very pleased with the results,” Massey Knakal Chairman Bob Knakal told Crain’s, who marketed three Jehovah’s Witnesses properties, which was first reported last summer. [more]
177-179 Columbia Heights at center
Restoration of the façade of 177-179 Columbia Heights, a 29-unit co-op in Brooklyn Heights, is now complete, the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported.
Previously cloaked under a layer of yellow paint, the original façade, featuring Italian-style designs of flowers, fruit, gargoyles and sea nymphs, suffered fading and water damage. It dates back to the 1920s. [more]
Despite hot new neighborhoods sprouting up in seemingly every corner of Brooklyn, Gravesend and Brooklyn Heights proved they were still the destination for the highest priced real estate in 2011, according to an analysis by Brownstoner. Of the five priciest sales in the borough this year, two were in the Heights and three in Gravesend. The most expensive sale was a 2,914-square-foot townhouse at 451 Avenue S in Gravensed, that sold for $10.25 million in May. The price per square foot was likely the highest ever paid in the borough, according to Brownstoner, but the total amount still trailed the townhouse across the street at 450 Avenue S, which sold for $11 million in 2003. [more]
Massey Knakal Realty Services will be marketing three properties in Brooklyn Heights known as the Watchtower buildings that are valued at $18.45 million altogether, the Commercial Observer reported. But the buildings — at 183 Columbia Heights, 50 Orange Street, and 161 Columbia Heights — will be marketed individually. For decades, their owner has been the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, a wing of the Jehovah’s Witnesses. And in previous instances when the buildings were up for sale, there was no asking price and no brokerage to handle the sale, the Brooklyn Eagle noted. Richard Devine, a spokesperson for the Watchtower Society, said that this was a new approach by the religious organization. [more]
Real estate developer Alexandre Bosoni and his wife, Maria, are asking $70,000 per month to rent their penthouse at newly constructed condominium 170 East End Avenue, formerly Doctors’ Hospital. The Parisian couple paid $11.8 million in 2009 to buy the nine-room spread from the sponsor, according to city records. Meanwhile, Daniel Shefter, a new partner at Goldman Sachs, and his wife, Lucyna, put their Brooklyn Heights house at 26 Garden Place on the market last week for $5.5 million. City records show they purchased it in 2007 for $4.9 million. Click here for more.
A segment of the Brooklyn Bridge Park
The first sections of the Brooklyn Bridge Park greenway have opened, Mayor Michael Bloomberg announced today, connecting Old Fulton Street to Pier 2 along the East River with a 2,000-foot bicycle and walk lane. The 30-foot wide greenway, which is being developed in conjunction with the Brooklyn Bridge Park, will stretch approximately 14 miles along the waterfront when completed. An additional five acres of park space was also opened today at the Brooklyn Heights recreation space. Once completed, Brooklyn Bridge Park will be roughly 85 acres in size, according to Bloomberg. So far, the city has committed $194 million to the project, while the state has contributed $85 million. TRD
A Brooklyn Heights building’s transformation from office to residential space has begun, according to Brownstoner. Although developers garnered approval to convert 75 Clinton Street, a one-time bankruptcy court location, into an apartment building in 2007, the plan stalled for unknown reasons. The conversion plans, as written in 2007, call for the addition of six floors to the top of the structure. No word yet on how many units it will contain or whether it will be rental or for-sale.
Actor Paul Giamatti, best known for his roles in movies like “Sideways” and “Cinderella Man,” has purchased a $1.3 million condo in Brooklyn Heights, according to Real Estalker. The 1,400-square-foot, three-bedroom, two-bathroom home is the second-known abode that Giamatti owns — the other is located in Venice, Calif. The Brooklyn pad is outfitted with hardwood floors and marble kitchen countertops, and contains a 29-foot-deep living room.
The Bloomberg Administration and environmental officials have named the Jamaica Bay as their next cleanup target area. Meanwhile, Chase, the consumer and commercial banking arm of JPMorgan Chase, announced today the opening of two new centers in the tri-state area to help distressed homeowners avoid foreclosure. Click here for more. [more]
