81 Prospect Street, built in 1909, is the oldest of five industrial buildings being converted into a complex of loft-style creative office buildings catering to tech company tenants. Kushner Companies, a family-owned real estate developer and landlord, along with RFR Realty and LIVWRK, the real-estate startup of former Two Trees' executive Asher Abehsera, acquired the buildings for $375 million from the Jehovahs Witnesses in 2013. The site, now christened Dumbo Heights, was known as the Watchtower when the Witnesses used it as headquarters. An agreement to sell the sixth building, a hotel at 90 Sands Street that the religious group will use through 2017, is expected to close that year. The investor group is spending $100 million to transform their purchase into a mix of offices, retail, and public space.

The 1.4 million-square-foot project is scheduled for completion in 2015. The buildings, interconnected by sky-bridges, have sand-colored brick facades and green-painted windows. Dumbo Heights is expected to have 90,000 square feet of ground_floor retail space. The Witnesses are relocating their headquarters to Warwick, New York. MK