Brooklyn Today June 7: Kushner Cos. Sells Stakes in Brooklyn Heights’ Watchtower Headquarters

June 7, 2018 Brooklyn Daily Eagle

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THE LEDE: Happy Thursday, Brooklyn! Sunset Park gears up for summer parties, we stroll down Park Slope’s Fifth Avenue, and Kushner Cos. sells its stakes in two big properties in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO. Plus, aWilliamsburg shop sells motorcycles, clothes and coffee, we show you how Domino Park was made, and anchors and bocce balls are found at the bottom of the Gowanus Canal. Finally, a developer buys into Greenpoint landing, aBoerum Hill gym teacher fights two students, and the Islanders begin their search for a new coach.

IMPRINT: Claire Foy leans on Benedict Cumberbatch on the June cover ofVariety.

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The Rundown

~REPORT: KUSHNER COS. SELLS STAKES IN BROOKLYN HEIGHTS’ WATCHTOWER HEADQUARTERS: Bye bye, Kushner Cos. Buy buy, CIM Group. Kushner Cos., which was headed by Jared Kushner until he became senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, has sold its ownership stakes in two big Brooklyn properties that had belonged to the Jehovah’s Witnesses. The real estate firm unloaded its stakes in the Watchtower’s former world headquarters at 25-30 Columbia Heights inBrooklyn Heights and massive residential development site 85 Jay St. inDUMBO. (New York Post via Brooklyn Eagle)

~STROLL BROOKLYN’S FIFTH AVENUE, STARTING WITH THE DEVELOPMENT-DOTTED PARK SLOPE SPAN: It starts with an arena and ends with a quasi-cathedral. We’re talking about Fifth Avenue, the commercial and residential corridor that runs from Barclays Center at the edge of Park Slope to big, beautiful St. Patrick’s Roman Catholic Church in Bay Ridge. The five-mile street passes through Greenwood Heights and Sunset Park, too. If you take photos, like we did, you’ll spend multiple days there. First, we’ll show you what’s cooking in Park Slope. Next week, we’ll tell you about our other Fifth Avenue adventures. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

~SUNSET PARK GEARS UP FOR SUMMER PARTIES AS INDUSTRY CITY HOSTS THE BELL HOUSE SUMMER SERIES: It’s going to be a fun summer in Sunset Park. Industry City and City Farm Presents are collaborating for a summer long series called the Bell House Summer Series. The five-month-long entertainment extravaganza, which began on Friday, promises to feature bands, comedians, DJ performances, outdoor games, drink specials and more. All of the activities will take place at the massive waterfront’s Courtyard 1/2,274 36th St. (via Brooklyn Eagle)

~AN INSIDE LOOK AT HOW WILLIAMSBURG’S DOMINO PARK WAS MADE: Walking along Domino Park, the new Williamsburg esplanade on the East River, feels a bit like being on an ocean liner. In this 100-foot-wide park, one is never far from the water and always coming upon a new experience — historical, reflective, playful, aquatic — all of it packed neatly into its six-acre space. Opening Sunday, the park is the public showpiece of the multibillion-dollar redevelopment of the 11-acre Domino Sugar refinery complex, which will include residential towers, office space and retail stores. (The Bridge via Brooklyn Eagle)

~ANCHORS, BOCCE BALLS AMONG OBJECTS FOUND DURING GOWANUS CANAL DREDGING: The Gowanus Canal cleanup is well underway and community members and archaeologists were excited to see what remnants of history emerged from the federal Superfund site’s sludge. Among the objects found so far during the pilot dredging project at the Fourth Street Turning Basin were an anchor from as early as the mid-nineteenth century, a dredging bucket, part of a gantry truck and other rusted remnants of the neighborhood’s industrial past. (Bklyner via Brooklyn Eagle)

~DEVELOPERS BUY INTO GREENPOINT LANDING IN $148 MILLION DEAL: Toronto based real estate developer Brookfield Properties increased its New York footprint after it bought into two development sites in Brooklyn. According to records filed on Tuesday with the city, Brookfield Properties bought into two of the Park Tower Group’s development sites at Greenpoint Landing, a waterfront site in Greenpoint. Valued at $148 million, the partners financed the deal with a $89 million loan from Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, records show. (The Real Deal via Brooklyn Eagle)

~JANE’S MOTORCYCLES IN WILLIAMSBURG IS NOT YOUR TYPICAL BIKER SHOP: Only in Williamsburg would a store sell motorcycles, coffee and clothing all in one. Alex DiMattio and Adam Kallen run Jane’s Motorcycles, located at 396 Wythe Ave., which is possibly the only shop of its kind in the world. Their concept was frowned upon by many of their business consultants, but the duo went ahead with their dream anyway. “They make great coffee, they’re great guys, it’s a beautiful shop, I love all the motorcycles, what’s there not to love — it’s all the great things in life,” customer Sam Slaughter said. (ABC7 via Brooklyn Eagle)

~BOERUM HILL GYM TEACHER ACCUSED OF CHOKING STUDENTS DURING FIGHT: A gym teacher at the Khalil Gibran International Academy inBoerum Hill was accused of choking two students during a fight. TeacherXavier Guerrero, 32, was fighting with a teenage boy when he put his hand around the youth’s throat, briefly stopping him from breathing. When a second boy tried to intervene, Guerrero tried to choke him as well. Department of Education spokesman Doug Cohen said on Tuesday, “Mr. Guerrero will be reassigned pending the outcome of the investigation into these troubling allegations.” (Daily News via Brooklyn Eagle)

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Staff Picks:

LONG READ: An imprisoned journalist writes about America’s broken mental-health-care system and how roughly 91 percent of patients end up in jail. (via Esquire)

ANOTHER LONG READ: Go inside the life of a New York City restaurant health inspector where the majority of the people you deal with “hate you.”(via NYT)

HEALTH: Fast walkers are considerably less likely to die early than slow strollers, according to a new study. (via Time)

TRAVEL: Forget MTA’s “Summer of Hell,” a new commuting catastropheawaits people traveling to New York City through the Lincoln Tunnel. (via NYT)

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NATIONAL BULLETIN: Hundreds of more homes are destroyed by lava in Hawaii…May was the warmest month ever in America, according to scientists…And San Francisco bans flavored tobacco products. (via NYT, USA Today and CNN)

FOREIGN FLASH: A crocodile kills a pastor who was baptising people in Ethiopia…American airstrikes hit 40 Humvees that were stolen by the Taliban…And 44 percent of kids in Afghanistan aren’t enrolled in school. (via BBC, USA Today and NYT)

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ROYAL WATCH: Is Meghan Markle receiving preferential treatmentover Kate Middleton? (via Yahoo)

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BROOKLYN TONIGHT

9:00AM — KenKen GS Suite at Made In NY Media Center. Details.

12:00PM – 2:00PM — BAM R&B Festival at MetroTech Commons at MetroTech Center. Details.

1:00PM – 5:00PM — In Search of Earth’s Secrets: A Pop-Up Science Encounter at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Details.

1:00PM – 5:00PM — Brooklyn Plein Air at Tabla Rasa Gallery. Details.

1:00PM – 6:00PM — Trokon Nagbe at FiveMyles. Details.

3:00PM – 5:00PM — Ed Center Open Hours at Brooklyn Bridge Park. Details.

6:30PM — Meg Wolitzer in Conversation with Brigid Hughes at Brooklyn Historical Society. Details.

6:30PM – 8:30PM — Writers Studio at Ugly Duckling Presse Studio. Details.

7:00PM — Yoga in the Park at Prospect Park/Long Meadow. Details.

7:30PM — BRIC! Celebrate Brooklyn at Prospect Park Bandshell. Details.

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EAGLE SPORTS: Lou Lamoriello spent a couple of weeks sizing up the Islanders’ organization before firing second-year head coach Doug Weightand relieving longtime general manager Garth Snow of his duties. As far as finding a new head coach to lead the players on the ice, Lamoriello revealed that he is still in the process of finding the right man for the job. “The best coach that we can get for the players that we have,” he said when pressed on the matter. “Not every coach is for every team and not every team is for every coach. We’ll have to just wait and see.” (via Brooklyn Eagle)

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MILESTONES

Happy birthday to Roberto Alagna, Michael Cera, Louise Erdrich, Bear Grylls, Bill Hader, Damien Hirst, Allen Iverson, Jenny Jones, Tom Jones,Anna Kournikova, Bill Kreutzmann Jr., Mike Modano, Liam Neeson, Orhan Pamuk, Mike Pence, John Turner!