Brooklyn Broadside: Welcome back Bossert

May 10, 2012 Brooklyn Eagle Staff
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By Dennis Holt

Brooklyn Daily Eagle

That there are plans to convert the Bossert Hotel into a … hotel! … should not have come as a surprise to anyone.

 

Many details have yet to be made public — such as who might operate the hotel, how much internal work will be needed (the Bossert now has about 200 rooms), and how to deal with its lack of parking access and taxi service.

 

The building is currently used by the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society to house visiting Jehovah’s Witnesses and is off-limits to the general public.

 

Community Board 2’s Land Use Committee will tackle developments at the Bossert when it meets on May 16, 6 p.m., at the Dibner Library, Polytechnic Institute. The Montague Street Business Improvement District plan to hold a private meeting tonight to discuss matters.

 

Some Montague Street businesses will benefit in major ways. The Heights Cafe, right across Hicks Street, will clearly benefit and is already planning to offer breakfast seven days a week rather than just on weekends. (This restaurant is also planning to open a major pizza parlor in an attached property on Hicks sometime in June.)

 

Other businesses, like Teresa’s, and the liquor store next door are licking their chops, and all the retail stores on the street anticipate gains from this development.

 

Brooklyn Bridge Park could eventually offer bus service to and from the hotel, and thoughts of bus service from the hotel to Barclays Center may be considered. Vehicle traff

ic patterns will have to be studied.

 

It will be interesting to see this building come back into the public sphere. At one time, it was a bustling hotel featuring a rooftop nightclub that was known for its great views.

 

The site has always hosted a hotel — before the Bossert was built, a hotel called Pierrepont House stood on the site.

 

Pierrepont House was a residential as well as a transient hotel. In an old city directory from 1884, we found 13 wealthy gentlemen who lived there — two presidents of companies, four lawyers, a broker who worked in Manhattan, and five owners of businesses in Brooklyn ranging from an iron foundry to a carpet business to a brewery.

 

Welcome back.

 

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