The 107-Year Relationship Between the Jehovah’s Witnesses and Brooklyn Is Coming to an End
By Terence Cullen Sept. 21, 2016, 9:45 a.m.
For Jehovah’s Witnesses, Brooklyn Heights was until recently the equivalent of Vatican City for Catholics.
Brooklyn—“the borough of churches”—arguably has no congregation with a more noticeable presence than the Witnesses. The Watch Tower Bible and Tract Society of Pennsylvania, the governing body of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, built its headquarters at 25-30 Columbia Heights, and it is there to greet any visitor driving over the Brooklyn Bridge. The pamphlets its missionaries hand out door to door were printed along the waterfront, put on ships in Brooklyn’s port and sent all around the world.
That was another time, however, and the Jehovah’s Witnesses are going the way of the Dodgers and leaving Brooklyn for good. A decade’s long plan to move upstate is nearly complete, and the Watch Tower Society is listing the last of its holdings for sale.
“We feel that we’re leaving Brooklyn with our heads held high,” said Richard Devine, a spokesman for the Watch Tower Society. “We wish everybody the best as we leave. We’ve always enjoyed working with our neighbors in Brooklyn.”
The Witnesses are the ultimate real estate winners as far as being shrewd landlords who held onto property and then sold the bulk of its portfolio during the borough’s boom. For the last 10 years, the church has been shedding its real estate assets—and in the process they’ve pocketed hundreds of millions of dollars.
It’s true, the church faced criticism for not using any of their profits for community investment, as well as for benefiting from upzonings originally intended for nonprofit use—but others have countered that the Witnesses extremely positive influence over the last 100 years, preserving parts of Brooklyn from falling into urban decay.
“They were a force for good,” said Timothy King, the managing partner of Downtown Brooklyn-based CPEX Real Estate. “The Witnesses never spared any expense maintaining their properties. I think it’s part of their lifestyle. They try to do everything they ever did the best way possible.”
Their buildings have stood out for their location, their quality and their ability to convert with relative ease. At one point, the Witnesses’ Brooklyn real estate empire totaled 4.5 million square feet that spanned 30 buildings, such as the Watchtower Buildings and the Hotel Bossert—making them one of the major players in New York real estate.
But the Watch Tower Society only has nine properties left and has made somewhere in the ballpark of $1.25 billion through sales since 2004, according to a Commercial Observer review of their transactions.
More at link.
betterdaze
JoinedPosts by betterdaze
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Relationship Between the JWs and Brooklyn Coming to an End
by betterdaze inthe 107-year relationship between the jehovah’s witnesses and brooklyn is coming to an endby terence cullen sept. 21, 2016, 9:45 a.m.for jehovah’s witnesses, brooklyn heights was until recently the equivalent of vatican city for catholics.
brooklyn—“the borough of churches”—arguably has no congregation with a more noticeable presence than the witnesses.
the watch tower bible and tract society of pennsylvania, the governing body of the jehovah’s witnesses, built its headquarters at 25-30 columbia heights, and it is there to greet any visitor driving over the brooklyn bridge.
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Mouthy has Passed Away
by Simon inupdate on mouthy (grace gough)this is graces granddaughter.
i wanted to send an update that today my beautiful grandmother passed away - surrounded by friends and family.
- may 22 1927 - sept 2nd 2016. mouthys_granddaughter.
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betterdaze
Sincere condolences to Grace's family.
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Buy stuff from the Warwick build
by Darkknight757 ingot another email today about buying stuff.. dear brother butt munch.
in harmony with jesus' words at john 6:12, 'so nothing is wasted', we would like to announce a new location where you can purchase items that were used during the construction of the new world headquarters at warwick, ny.
all funds recouped in this manner will be used to support the worldwide work.. you may visit at the former dairy barn at watchtower farms, 900 red mills road, wallkill, ny 12589. hours of operation are from 10:00am to 6:00pm, tuesday through saturday.
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Bunker Video: Why No Concluding Scene?
by Wild_Thing ini was wondering why they ended the "bunker video" as they did ... with an armed militia finding the jws huddled in the corner of the basement ... fade to black.
the jws watching don't know what happened after that.
did they kill them?
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betterdaze
The concluding scene?
Kevin “associating” with worldly wicked people in “the Northern Estates” where the Witnesses changed their message to one of judgement.
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“It's just tenacity”
by betterdaze inhow this startup founder triumphed over his year of hell“it's just tenacity," says proposify co-founder and ceo kyle racki any experienced entrepreneur can tell you that two keys to a successful startup are a solid business idea — especially one that solves a big problem for others — and the tenacity to make it work.
kyle racki hit on the former when he was running a web design agency and came up with a faster, better way to create proposals for clients.
it was what happened to him in the following year that tested his tenacity.in 2013, racki co-founded proposify with kevin springer in halifax, nova scotia.
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betterdaze
How This Startup Founder Triumphed Over His Year of Hell
“It's just tenacity," says Proposify co-founder and CEO Kyle Racki
Any experienced entrepreneur can tell you that two keys to a successful startup are a solid business idea — especially one that solves a big problem for others — and the tenacity to make it work. Kyle Racki hit on the former when he was running a web design agency and came up with a faster, better way to create proposals for clients. It was what happened to him in the following year that tested his tenacity.
In 2013, Racki co-founded Proposify with Kevin Springer in Halifax, Nova Scotia. The startup created a cloud-based service that mixes templates, design features and flexible customization to speed up the chore of sales, marketing and web design proposals. Traditionally, these were created in Microsoft Word or Google Docs, but Proposify’s tools are tailored specifically for proposals, adding collaboration and signature features to simplify the process. Some users say the software has cut a two-week process down to a couple of hours.
But it took about a year for Proposify to get enough traction to generate a substantial customer base. During that period, the co-founders almost gave up. Along the way, nearly everything began to go wrong in Racki’s life. The digital agency he was also running ran into debt. Selling it turned into a lengthy and arduous task. His father died, weighing him down with grief. He separated from his wife. On top of that, Racki’s mother and sister broke off contact with him after he began to question the religion in which his parents had raised him, Jehovah’s Witnesses.
“I finally gave myself permission to look at outside material that was critical of the religion. And when I told my mother about it, she said she would never speak to me again. Everyone I knew in that religion would not even say hi to me on the street,” says Racki. “So, yeah, it was a crazy year, and in the midst of that, trying to run a business and keep that flow was really tough.”
More at link.
Shameless plug for Kyle’s company: https://www.proposify.biz/ -
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69 Adams St. in DUMBO up for sale
by betterdaze inthe jehovah's witnesses put 69 adams st. in dumbo up for saleby lore croghanbrooklyn daily eagletennis, anyone?.
the jehovah's witnesses have just put onto the sale market a development site in the heart of dumbo, 69 adams st.the building that now occupies the site has a four-story recreational facility and an 84-space parking garage.
its rooftop is graced with an open-air tennis court — which is topped by a fence so cars and pedestrians down below don't accidentally get pelted with over-exuberantly hit balls.the watchtower recently posted the sale offering online without alerting reporters.according to the posting, 69 adams st. is “a 157,410-square-foot development opportunity adjacent to the iconic manhattan bridge.” the jehovah's witnesses did not offer any comment about their sale offering to the brooklyn eagle when asked about it.
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betterdaze
Do you know if they build it or bought a building with a tennis court on top?
bohm, it was originally built as a small industrial-manufacturing plant.Watchtower converted it to a recreational center with an 84-space parking garage on the lower levels.
Side note: The only structure they gave up building from the blueprints at Warwick HQ was the recreational facility.
Why?
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69 Adams St. in DUMBO up for sale
by betterdaze inthe jehovah's witnesses put 69 adams st. in dumbo up for saleby lore croghanbrooklyn daily eagletennis, anyone?.
the jehovah's witnesses have just put onto the sale market a development site in the heart of dumbo, 69 adams st.the building that now occupies the site has a four-story recreational facility and an 84-space parking garage.
its rooftop is graced with an open-air tennis court — which is topped by a fence so cars and pedestrians down below don't accidentally get pelted with over-exuberantly hit balls.the watchtower recently posted the sale offering online without alerting reporters.according to the posting, 69 adams st. is “a 157,410-square-foot development opportunity adjacent to the iconic manhattan bridge.” the jehovah's witnesses did not offer any comment about their sale offering to the brooklyn eagle when asked about it.
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betterdaze
also… Spanks
Ahh, the sincere sacrifices these Brooklyn Brothers make for you lowly publishers in outer Buttsville!
Which brave-hearted Bethelite was entrusted with the task to sit in Satan’s public park all day until the sun set over Jersey, waiting for Miss Spanx to come jogging along for that perfect publicity shot?
We may never know.Just send us more money.
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69 Adams St. in DUMBO up for sale
by betterdaze inthe jehovah's witnesses put 69 adams st. in dumbo up for saleby lore croghanbrooklyn daily eagletennis, anyone?.
the jehovah's witnesses have just put onto the sale market a development site in the heart of dumbo, 69 adams st.the building that now occupies the site has a four-story recreational facility and an 84-space parking garage.
its rooftop is graced with an open-air tennis court — which is topped by a fence so cars and pedestrians down below don't accidentally get pelted with over-exuberantly hit balls.the watchtower recently posted the sale offering online without alerting reporters.according to the posting, 69 adams st. is “a 157,410-square-foot development opportunity adjacent to the iconic manhattan bridge.” the jehovah's witnesses did not offer any comment about their sale offering to the brooklyn eagle when asked about it.
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betterdaze
The Jehovah's Witnesses put 69 Adams St. in DUMBO up for sale
By Lore Croghan
Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Tennis, anyone?
The Jehovah's Witnesses have just put onto the sale market a development site in the heart of DUMBO, 69 Adams St.
The building that now occupies the site has a four-story recreational facility and an 84-space parking garage.
Its rooftop is graced with an open-air tennis court — which is topped by a fence so cars and pedestrians down below don't accidentally get pelted with over-exuberantly hit balls.
The Watchtower recently posted the sale offering online without alerting reporters.
According to the posting, 69 Adams St. is “a 157,410-square-foot development opportunity adjacent to the iconic Manhattan Bridge.”
The Jehovah's Witnesses did not offer any comment about their sale offering to the Brooklyn Eagle when asked about it. They did give the Eagle permission to publish their images of 69 Adams St.
More at link: 69 Adams St. in DUMBO up for sale
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Possible Names For New XJW Books...
by JW_Rogue injust what it sounds like list some titles that you think would be good for an xjw memoir or book.
just for fun:.
-the real, real life.
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betterdaze
JW.org: Best Life Never -
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Debbie Shard's Story
by Lee Elder innew article on ajwrb.
http://ajwrb.org/experiences/debbie-shards-story.
debbie shards storyposted on july 22, 2014 by lee elderi was raised as a jehovahs witness in a family that was associated from about 1910. i grew up truly believing it was the truth.
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