The Jehovah’s Witnesses make a deal to sell 107 Columbia Heights
Buyer of prime Brooklyn Heights residential property also owns the Hotel Bossert
The Jehovah’s Witnesses have made a deal to sell one of the crown jewels in their remaining Brooklyn Heights real estate portfolio.
The buyer is a publicly traded company headed by real estate investor David Bistricer — to whom the Watchtower sold Brooklyn Heights’ Hotel Bossert in 2012.
A company of which Bistricer is the founder, co-chairman and chief executive officer, Clipper Realty Inc., announced on Wednesday it has made an agreement to purchase 107 Columbia Heights for $87.5 million.
According to the announcement, the agreed-upon purchase price works out to $569 per square foot for the approximately 154,000-square-foot residential building’s acquisition — which is expected to close in May.
The developer is making plans to add 12 additional apartments to the 161-unit residential building by remodeling “various public areas” at 107 Columbia Heights, the announcement said.
The 102-foot tall Columbia Heights building was constructed in 1959, before the Brooklyn Heights Historic District was created and height limitations were imposed on new construction in the neighborhood. The building’s height cannot be replicated in the landmarked neighborhood today.
The gated, L-shaped 11-story building has a landscaped courtyard — and killer views of the Brooklyn Bridge, the Manhattan skyline and New York Harbor.
It has frontage on Orange Street, where it faces another Watchtower property that is still for sale, 97 Columbia Heights. And massive 107 Columbia Heights also has frontage on Willow Street — on the same block as 70 Willow St., which is known to tourists and literature lovers as the historic home where Truman Capote lived when he worked on “Breakfast at Tiffany’s” and “In Cold Blood.”