First look at new renderings for 85 Jay St.

Condos and rental apartments slated for site sold by Jehovah's Witnesses

January 18, 2019 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

This shoreline panorama of Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO shows condo and rental-apartment development 85 Jay St., to the right of the Manhattan Bridge. Renderings by Williams New York

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Here’s what the development on DUMBO’s old Watchtower parking lot will look like.

Publicists for CIM Group and LIVWRK sent reporters new renderings of 85 Jay St., the Morris Adjmi-designed condo and rental-apartment development at 85 Jay St.

The drawings show two towers, each 21 stories tall, connected by a low-rise base. The property covers a full city block bounded by Jay, Front, Bridge and York streets.

The top floors of the towers will have views of the East River and the Manhattan skyline.

The renderings serve as illustrations for a registration site for potential purchasers that the developers just launched for condos at Front and York, which is the name they’ve given the property.

Sales of the one-to-four-bedroom condos are slated to launch later this year, according to a press release from the developers.

Construction crews are now doing foundation work at the site.

There will be a total of 732 apartments at 85 Jay St. plus space for shops and a community facility, city Buildings Department filings indicate.

According to Brownstoner.com, the complex will have two swimming pools and 712 below-ground parking spaces.

Housing for Jehovah’s Witnesses had been planned

When the developers bought 85 Jay St. from the Jehovah’s Witnesses for $345 million in December 2016, they had a third partner, the Kushner Cos.

Jared Kushner headed the company until he stepped aside to become senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump.

In 2018, Kushner Cos. sold its 2.5 percent stake in the property to CIM Group.

The Jehovah’s Witnesses sold 85 Jay St. when they liquidated their massive Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO property portfolio because they moved their world headquarters to upstate New York.

It took the Watchtower many years to assemble the 85 Jay St. site and then obtain a city zoning variance to allow residential construction on it.

The religious organization tore down the buildings on the site and used it as an open-air parking lot.

The group planned to build four towers to house about 1,600 of its members, plus an auditorium, a dining facility and a parking garage.