5 Other Buildings Remain on the Market
By Linda Collins
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — The former Standish Arms Hotel, which has served as a residential building for the Watchtower Bible & Tract Society since 1981, has been sold.
David Semonian in the Watchtower’s Office of Public Information, told the Eagle yesterday that the closing took place on Nov. 15.
Asked for information about the buyer, Semonian would only say, “The buyer has not authorized us to release that information.”
Local Heights’ denizens, however, say that a company in Boston has acquired the building. They also report that workmen have been seen hauling stuff (furnishings) out of the building and hauling building materials in.
A check of city Department of Finance records reveals that no sale has been recorded there as yet, possibly delayed by the Thanksgiving holidays.
The Standish, at 167 Columbia Heights, is a 12-story Beaux-Arts-style building built in 1903. First leased by the Watchtower, it has been owned by the organization since 1988. Currently, it has 128 apartments.
Earlier this year, the Eagle reported that it was one of six residential buildings the Watchtower had on the market. The Standish and two others — 161 and 183 Columbia Heights — were being sold as a portfolio; and three more — 165 Columbia Hts., 105 Willow St. and 34 Orange St. — were being sold individually.
“Although we originally planned to sell the other two buildings with the Standish as a portfolio, we decided it would be more practical to handle those buildings differently,” said Semonian. “There has been substantial interest shown in the remaining buildings and the process is moving forward.”
As regularly chronicled in this newspaper, the religious organization has been reorganizing and consolidating a number of its operations in Brooklyn and transferring some to Walkill, N.Y. In 2004, the printing and shipping operations were transferred to Wallkill, resulting in the sale of 360 Furman St., a building on the waterfront in the Heights which had been used as a warehouse and shipping complex.
Since then, with the reduction of workers in the Heights, two other residential properties have already been sold — 89 Hicks St., which was originally built in 1940 and has 48 residential units on six floors, was acquired by Brooklyn Law School; and 67 Livingston, also known locally as “the sliver building,” which was built in 1988 and has 76 units on 26 floors, was acquired by New York University.
© Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2007
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