City taxman awaits heaven-sent boo$t
By LEONARD GREENE
Last Updated: 2:19 AM, October 17, 2011
Posted: 1:18 AM, October 17, 2011
Their prayers have been answered.
City officials are salivating over the prospect of new revenue once the sale of a religious group’s real-estate empire is complete, according to a new report.
For more than a century, the Jehovah’s Witnesses have controlled swaths of land and property in Brooklyn that have long been defined by two words: tax exempt.
But now, with the Witnesses putting most of their coveted properties on the market in preparation for a move upstate, city officials are dreaming about ways to spend the money that will be generated by new real-estate taxes.
At stake, according to Crain’s New York Business, are 34 mint-condition properties in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO that hold 3.2 million square feet -- more than the Empire State Building -- and are worth well over $1 billion.
The move could net City Hall millions of dollars a year in tax revenue.
“There is great potential here to transform the surrounding neighborhoods,” Brooklyn Borough President Marty Markowitz told Crain’s.
Plans are being tossed around for the properties and the revenue they could generate.
Ideas include housing and office space, a new hotel, university expansion and more land for nearby Brooklyn Bridge Park.