LA firm scoops up Jehovah’s Witnesses building for $58M

Hawkins Way Capital purchased 97-unit 97 Columbia Heights

97 Columbia Heights
97 Columbia Heights

The Jehovah’s Witnesses sold off another piece of their dwindling Brooklyn real estate portfolio to Los Angeles-based real estate investor Hawkins Way Capital for $58 million.

Hawkins bought the 12-story, 97-unit apartment building at 97 Columbia Heights, according to Leslie J. Garfield Real Estate.

The Witnesses bought the 88,610-square-foot building in 1986 from developer Ian Bruce Eichner, who was constructing the building after a fire destroyed his co-op conversion of the former Hotel Margaret on the site.

Hawkins recently purchased another Witnesses’ building, 119 Columbia Heights, for $18 million.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

Leslie J. Garfield’s Matt Lesser and Ravi Kantha represented the buyer in both sales.

The religious group recently relocated their headquarters to upstate New York, and have sold off most of their Brooklyn portfolio. In May, Developer Jeffrey Gershon went into contract to buy their building at 74 Adams Street for $60 million, and David Bistricer’s Clipper Realty picked up 107 Columbia Heights in February for $87.5 million.

Kushner Companies last year led a group of investors to buy the Watchtower building at 25-30 Columbia Heights for $340 million, one of Brooklyn’s biggest deals ever.

Hawkins previously worked to restore the Mark Twain Hotel in Hollywood. – Rich Bockmann