DUMBO Takes Wing

ezekiel3

Source Daily News (New York): http://www.nydailynews.com/boroughs/story/258281p-221230c.html

Jehovah's Witnesses get DUMBO plan OK

BY HUGH SON
DAILY NEWS STAFF WRITER

The controversial Jehovah's Witnesses residential complex in DUMBO all but got the green light yesterday when a key City Council committee voted in favor of a scaled-back version of the project.

Major changes to the 85 Jay St. complex include two of the four planned apartment towers being reduced by a total of 130 feet in height.
"We achieved what we agree is an acceptable compromise," said Councilman Tony Avella (D-Queens), chairman of the Council's Zoning and Franchises Committee.

Avella had "no doubt" the project would be approved at a final Council vote on Dec. 13.

Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman Richard Devine said the project would brighten a "dark and inhospitable" section of DUMBO. Construction is scheduled to start in 2006.

"This will bring a lot of life and activity to an area that really could use it," Devine said.

The four residential towers - the highest of which will be 20 stories - will house about 1,600 people in 888 studio and one-bedroom apartments. That is a significant addition to the estimated 2,000 who live in DUMBO now.

The 800,000-square-foot complex also will include a three-story auditorium, a dining hall and an 1,100-spot underground parking garage.

The two neighborhood groups that have opposed the plan because of its large scale - and who helped to reduce its size - reacted differently to the news.

The improvements are "nothing to sneeze at," said Nicholas Evans-Cato of the Vinegar Hill Association.

But Nancy Webster of the DUMBO Neighborhood Association expressed disappointment that the buildings weren't scaled back further.
"What the Witnesses are building is basically a development that works for them, not the rest of the neighborhood," she said.

Webster also lamented that the project will not include street-level retail shops along Jay St. because the religious group refuses to act as a commercial landlord.

She and other residents have no choice but to adjust to a new presence in DUMBO, Webster admitted. "We'll try to be good neighbors," she said.

peacefulpete

I saw this piece too, and was quite surprised. What are they doing buiding in town? They have more housing then they know what to do with. Have they sold off other properties?

blondie

I anticipate they will sell off all the little properties they have all over Brooklyn Heights to house Bethelites and will make a pretty profit.

I can see them consolidating the remaining Bethelites in this complex and selling off more of their property (having already sold the Furman Building).

The WTS has done some switching of units from Wallkill to Brooklyn and vice versa as well.

Parking has always been a problem at Brooklyn Bethel too and I see that they have planned for that.

Jehovah's Witnesses spokesman Richard Devine said the project would brighten a "dark and inhospitable" section of DUMBO. Construction is scheduled to start in 2006.

Evidently, the end is not coming before 2006.

Quotes

Webster also lamented that the project will not include street-level retail shops along Jay St. because the religious group refuses to act as a commercial landlord.
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This is the most surprising: perhaps no one has informed the old farts... erm, I mean the Gov Body, that there is money to be made in being a commercial landlord?

(I can just imagine them rousing from their slumber now: "What's that? Money? For Jah's organization of course... but MONEY???!!!???"

~Quotes of the "Assimilated neither by Disney nor Watchtower" class

BluesBrother

because the religious group refuses to act as a commercial landlord.

During the 70s/ 80s our Kingom Hall was in a large building . We used part of it as a meeting hall and sub let the other side to a commercial company.. Nobody objected to that arrangement then. The building is still the Kingdom Hall. I do not know whether the other side is still sub let.