Read the whole article at:  http://www.nypost.com/business/13351.htm

December 14, 2003 -- Another real estate turf war is cooking in Brooklyn.

This one squares off DUMBO dwellers against Jehovah's Witnesses, whose plans to build a massive housing complex has the trendy neighborhood residents from Down Under the Manhattan Bridge Overpass fuming.

The religious group recently applied for city rezoning to develop a six-building, 1,000-unit residential complex at 85 Jay St., directly adjacent to the only subway station in the red-hot 'hood.

Locals are angry because they say the castle-like complex will detract from the developing area's industrial aesthetic and waste potentially valuable retail space in what could soon be a well-trafficked corridor.

"This huge parcel is going to become the heart of the neighborhood, and we don't want our heart to be a fortress," said DUMBO Neighborhood Association President Nancy Webster.

 

There is also a website devoted to preventing the Watchtower from rebuilding their part of DUMBO. It would be good to write a letter. Who's up for a letter campaign?

Randy Watters

Net Soup!

  http://www.freeminds.org

  http://www.watchtowernews.org

 

 

Count me in!! 

growedup

http://85jaystreet.org/

You can have a voice in the future of 85 Jay Street and the neighborhood.
Click here.

 

sKally

B12, I figure they are only moving a portion of the operation to Wallkill. 

Blondie

Winston,

From where I sit, everything points to that exact motive!

The last sentence in the article (click on Dogpatch's link) shows that they do not need additional housing in Brooklyn.

Can someone tell us how many people work in the million-square-foot shipping facility at 360 Furman St in Brooklyn Heights? That's an awfully big building, with I am SURE an awful lot of "employees" who will no longer need housing in Brooklyn once that building sells.

IMHO, they are getting into real estate investing, plain and simple, and they want to use their tax-exempt status to make more than any ordinary real estate developer would make given the exact same project and costs.

growedup

this is just something that was passed on to me from a well connected "Mole" at bethel- from what i am told this is pretty much the deal at this point-

 

the wt as we know is actually downsizing the size of the bethel family, the days of calling in 10-20 newboys each
friday are over, in fact the largest group that has been called in to bethel in the last few years are "Professionals"

the days of the Bindery worker are numbered, they are now interested for the most part only in a TECH, COLLEGE OR HIGHLY SKILLED LABOR - the cleaning and laundry are well taken care of-

I recall the Jay st building like it was yesterday, the reason being was when i was at bethel --myself and another guy went over to do an inspection of the plumbing system, gerneral number of raditors, bathrooms etc- while there we both drunk some of the water in the water fountain-

 OK we were Dumb A$$es, but it was THE HOUSE OF JEHOVAH- anyway both of us ended up in the infirmary with a server case of kidney infections- my folks ended up coming up there to see, me- all i could drink was cranberry juice-

 

the word on the street is the wt once again is going to take full advantage of FREE LABOR  and start to take a number of it's properties and convert them to Marketable realestate- that building was slated for FACTORY USED, and now they will use it for residential use while at the same time reducing the number of residents in bethel DUHHHHHHHH!!!-

THEY HAVE a number of prime real estates properties that they are considering doing this to-

 

i know you guys at bethel are reading this post, how does it make you feel to know that you can't keep any secrets at the  BIG HOUSE ANYMORE

YEA SOME OF MY BOYS have no problem talking about your plans-

 

you may want to hide some of those BLUE PRINTS YOU GUYS LEAVE LAYING AROUND SMILE

The WTS has a long history of animosity with their Brooklyn Heights neighbors.  The WTS has a history of tearing down historic buildings.  Have you ever wondered about the brownstone fronts on 117 (?) and the building next to it.  The WTS was forced to retain the look rather than put in the modern building they planned on.  If you have visited Brooklyn Bethel, you might notice one building is modern.  Boy, did that burn up the neighbors and it prompted a closer eye legally on the WTS.

Do not kid yourself about Brooklyn Heights being safer because of the WTS.  A police officer told me that the criminals follow the money and Brooklyn Heights is a wealthy neighborhood. 

The WTS has all the tunnels to keep the Bethelites off the sidewalks as much as possible (which also irritates the neighbors).  The WTS finally built indoor basketball courts for the young male Bethelites because they were hogging all the court time on the local outdoor courts.  When you visit Bethel, your host will remind you not to walk 3 or 4 abreast down the sidewalk and mow down the neighbors.

Here's the architectural firm's site.  They did redo Grand Central so they have the experience to retain a buildng's historic character.

http://www.beyerblinderbelle.com/projects.html

Randy,

Thanks for for discussing this further on the board.

I was wondering though......how much pull will letters have, from people who do not even live in the area? I see people here from all over willing to help, but won't they wonder why someone so far away would object? They might understand fellow New Yorkers and those near the area voicing an opinion.....but why someone out of the area they may wonder.

Gumby

Hey, all...since the DUMBO residents expressly said they don't want a "fortress" as the heart of their community, maybe someone (who knows the specifics better than I do) should point out that Bethel went into lockdown on 9/11 to keep 'worldy' people out of their buildings......people in NY should react pretty strongly to that...as they have a right to. I'd hate to have a JW stronghold close to my home

I suggest you take a look at the neighborhood and agenda of those who are up in arms before sending any letters.