A Further Land Grab.
by Lost in the fog 10 Replies latest social current
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peacefulpete
Paywall. Can't see it.
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smiddy3
Give us the gist of what it`s all about Litf as nobody can see it unless they pay up ?
And we may not think it worth it ?
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road to nowhere
Didnt read but big tax exempt properties still use services
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Lost in the fog
So here's the article -
"Jehovah's witnesses campus plans in Ramapo will expand a growing Hudson Valley empire.
Jehovah's Witnesses have always sought converts through print: those familiar booklets with Bible lessons that volunteers bring door-to-door to share their Christian beliefs. But outreach has evolved in the digital age. The Warwick-based religious order, which has an estimated 8.7 million members worldwide, is preparing to build a giant complex in Ramapo, two miles from its headquarters, where it will record Bible-based films, videos and other audio-visual materials that the group now uses to advance its mission. The 249-acre campus will include movie soundstages, offices and apartment buildings to house up to 1,240 volunteer workers.
The project, in the works since 2019, cleared a major hurdle this month when Ramapo officials approved a zoning change it needed. The Jehovah's Witnesses hope to get site-plan approvals by June and then start construction, which is expected to take around four years.
The religious order has long had a presence in the Hudson Valley, from its printing plant, farm and residential complex in Ulster County to its 373-acre missionary school campus across the river in Putnam County. But it has greatly expanded its footprint in the region since deciding to leave its century-old headquarters in Brooklyn, starting with its $20 million purchase in 2009 of the former International Nickel campus in Warwick that would become its new base.
The group has since spent TENS OF MILLIONS OF DOLLARS MORE in three counties on buildings to house its volunteer workforce, as well as on other properties. In 2014 alone, it bought a pair of hotels in the town of Newburgh for $45 MILLION and a 250-unit, luxury apartment complex in Fishkill for $57 MILLION, according to property records. The group also bought a Montgomery warehouse for $8.8 MILLION that same year and a senior-housing complex under construction in Fishkill for $4.5 MILLION in 2015.
Most of its properties are tax-exempt for religious reasons, a sore point with some town tax officials when the Time Herald-Record examined in 2015 the holdings the Jehovah's Witnesses had amassed by then. The group has also been praised for its civic contributions.
Tax exempt: Watchtower's growth strains town budgets in mid-Hudson. Jehovah's Witnesses plan to buy a third Fishkill property. The Watchtower, the Jehovah’s Witnesses, has obtained a partial tax exemption for the Rivercrest apartment complex in the Town of Fishkill.
In 2014, the Jehovah's Witnesses bought Rivercrest, a 250-unit, luxury apartment complex in Fishkill for $57 MILLION, according to property records.
The massive new media complex will use clean energy.
The audio-visual production complex will be built on woodlands at the border of Orange and Rockland counties that the group bought for $11.5 MILLION in 2009. The property is off Sterling Mine Road, near the Eagle Valley housing development in Tuxedo, and was previously slated for a housing project that never came to fruition. It consists of 242 acres in Ramapo, which is in in Rockland, and seven acres in Tuxedo, which is in Orange.
The plans include a 227,000-square-foot studio building and a separate office complex; ten, five-story apartment buildings with 545 one-bedroom units and 100 studio units; a 130,000-square-foot building to hold events; and a 121,000-square-foot visitor center. All told, the complex would encompass 1.7 million square feet, making it a bit larger than the group's nearby headquarters in Orange County."
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Ding
Meanwhile, they are selling KHs like crazy, forcing JWs who built their halls to go elsewhere.
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TonusOH
Being tax exempt certainly saves them huge amounts of money, as does all of the dirt-cheap or free labor they can command. But they are spending a lot on all of this real estate and the buildings and other improvements, and those will still require steady income in order to remain viable.
They might need to start a YouTube channel in order to generate some income. Imagine the views they would get from "Stephen Lett Reaction" videos. Maybe Tony Morris can do booze reviews? And David Splane can 'splain how overlapping generations works. They could even do "Rebuttal Rebuttal Sushi" videos breaking down Lloyd Evans's breakdowns.
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Gorb
It's all about long term investment.
G.
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enoughisenough
God is blessing them so they can make movies to show the resurrected ones what life was like in the time of the end! That will be so important! LOL
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smiddy3
Hopefully they will over extend themselves money-wise and then crash ,and burn.
After all they are / were a religion that promoted the end of this system of things in the generation that saw 1914 , then 1975 ,then the end of the 20th Century ?
And now ?.............?