For Sale: 89 Hicks, 67 Livingston (aka Sliver Building)
By Linda Collins
BROOKLYN HEIGHTS — The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York announced yesterday that two of its properties in Brooklyn Heights are on the market. Both residential buildings that were acquired by Watchtower in the late 1980s, they are at 89 Hicks Street and 67 Livingston Street, according to David Semonian of the Office of Public Information. The property at 89 Hicks was originally built in 1940, Semonian said, and has 48 residential units on six floors, most of them studios with kitchenettes and baths, along with a few one-bedroom units. The property at 67 Livingston, also known locally as “the sliver building,” was built in 1988 and has 76 units on 26 floors, including one-bedroom and studio apartments, many with terraces. “We acquired this building [67 Livingston] when it was still under construction,” said Richard Devine, who is in charge of Building Maintenance and Construction for Watchtower. “It was designed to have one condo on each floor. We got it after the shell was completed so we redesigned the interior to have more and smaller units.” As with the sale of its former waterfront shipping complex at 360 Furman St. (currently undergoing conversion to condominiums and mixed-use), the religious organization is not listing these buildings with realtors, nor is it setting asking prices. “We are going to let the market determine the price,” Devine said. “We anticipate it will be a private sale between principals, as it was with 360 Furman.” PropertyShark.com, a Web site for the real estate industry, the market rate value is estimated at $3.45-$3.65 million for 67 Livingston and$1.32-$1.37 million for 89 Hicks. The Watchtower organization, also known as Jehovah’s Witnesses, is selling the buildings because of a decreased need for housing. “We’ve, of course, sold 360 Furman and we’ve finished all the work involved in moving operations out of that building, and we’ve sent our printing operations upstate,” said Devine. “All of that lowered the numbers of our staff and therefore we decided to go ahead and let these two buildings go.” According to Devine, 67 Livingston will be delivered vacant at the time of sale; 89 Hicks will be occupied by the seven original tenants living there when the building was acquired. In an earlier article in the Brooklyn Eagle, it was reported that the organization had 20 residential buildings in Brooklyn Heights, including two hotels — the Bossert at 89 Montague St. and the Standish at 169 Columbia Heights. It has also been widely reported that the Watchtower will build a four-tower complex at 85 Jay St. in DUMBO that will include residential — something that could mean the future sale of more such buildings in Brooklyn Heights. Work has not yet begun on the DUMBO site, according to Devine. © Brooklyn Daily Eagle 2006
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