How many Facilities & Farms does the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society now own? $

by Balaamsass 34 Replies latest watchtower scandals

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  Balaamsass

  This Brooklyn Realtor believes the BROOKLYN 1 bil. number may be to low.

  Watchtower Properties: $1 Billion? Really?

  by brooklynheightsblog on 29. Jul, 2010 in Real Estate, Watchtower

  

  Brooklyn Heights resident and real estate broker Donald Brennan files this guest post:

  After reading the ‘Real Deal on Watchtower Properties’ post here last week I got to thinking – a billion dollars, for 25 properties, where did that number come from? While I am aware of the impeccable condition of these properties, inside and out, my initial reaction was – that’s crazy! Isn’t it? Maybe not.

  In order to get a feel for what the estimated billion dollar price tag relates to in a more tangible metric I set out to determine the price per square foot for the portfolio. I broke the properties down into three general categories – non-residential, residential and residential development – determined the approximate size of each property and derived a dollar per square foot value for each category based on recent comparable market transactions and the Watchtower’s own transaction record of previously owned properties. The blended per square foot price works out to $260, which sounds low, doesn’t it? So while we are in the middle of one of the biggest deleveraging cycles ever, the $1 Billion estimate may be understated.

  So if market conditions do improve the portfolio may be worth more than a billion dollars. And if there isn’t any improvement, well then they are still sitting on $1,000,000,000 of prime Brooklyn real estate. Not the worst thing.

  Brooklyn Heights resident and broker Donald Brennan hosts informal real estate discussions at his home on the third Tuesday of each month. The next session is August17. Visit his website to RSVP and for more information .
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  Gayle

  for Balaamsass, you asked about Kingdom Halls, total number. Don't know. This shows for U. S. States and Canadian provinces. Just K.H.s, not Congregations sharing a KH.

  Here is a site found by accident, checking about that just for Arizona. Don't know how recent this site was done. (89 KHs in Arizona)

  http://www.jehovah-witnesses.org/kingdom_halls/list_by_state_providence.htm

  So, start counting - hee hee.
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  factfinder

  Thank you Gayle!
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  factfinder

  The list for New Jersey is missing at least two that I know of-but NJ has over 80!
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  Jack C.

  According to the last census there are over 30,000 cities and townships in the US. Since many cities have multiple kingdom Halls and some towns may have none it's a good guess there are over 30,000 Kingdom Halls in the US alone. If the average value is a very conservative $75,000 each that totals $2,225,000,000 (2.25 billion). If you add in the rest of the world this may perhaps double to around $5 billion. This of course doesn't count assembly halls.
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  Gayle

  Yah..shows some references going back to 2006 within that site,,suspect not up to date. so give or take, , , kind of thing. but probably pretty close enough.
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  Balaamsass

  WOW. Thanks Gayle! Counting all those halls will take some time after work!!

  Perhaps I can get some sq ft values off of Zillow. Humm.

  I wonder how many assembly halls and Kingdom halls in the UK, NZ, AUS and Europe???????

  Would $100 per sq ft be a good number?? How many sq ft for the average quick build..I will have to check the branch quick build plan set.
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  Gorbatchov

  When JW's build new kingdom halls in The Netherlands (Europe) they have a mortage of +/- 1.000.000 euro.

  Sometimes the kingdom hall's look like real church buildings.

  Fast Building has stopped here, all halls are partly build by external companies and finished by the RBC's.

  JW's stopped fast building projects because of the very poor quality of these buildings.
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  Gayle

  12,995 Congs. shows on 2010 Service Year Report but often KHs are shared by two, three, or sometimes 4 congs.
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  blondie

  In order for the WTS as the parent non--profit corporation to takeover the property and assets of a congregation the orginal non-profit today in the us, they must first dissolve that congregation legally. It has to be the congregation that holds the terrirotry the building is on. Then all the people in that congregation are re-assigned to other congregations in the neighborhood. The ownership does not automatically transfer over to the WTS when the building is paid for. I don't know what the laws in other countries, but that is how it works in the US.