Rivercrest Luxury Apartments

tezrichmond

I was totally p***d off about Watchtower teaching u should keep your life simple and not investing in treasures in the earth etc while they are buying luxury apartments and forcing its residents out on the street including children. So I got on with an email and sent it as follows. If any from UK want to launch a complaint go to http://www.frsb.org.uk/donors/. Email JW's at [email protected] or inboxlglcorporate.us@jw.org

Dear Brothers,

I would like to make a complaint about the misuse of public funding using contributions that I and other individuals have made towards the Watchtower Society of Pennsylvania recently and in the past.

I was mislead into making contributions towards what I expected to be the Worldwide Work and Kingdom Hall contributions. However, the funds that I have made have been misused into purchasing Luxury Apartments. http://www.poughkeepsiejournal.com/story/money/economy/2014/12/22/jehovahs-witnesses-buy-fishkill-rivercrest-apartments/20788311/ Jesus taught me to keep my eye simple, and to not invest in treasures on the earth. If I had known the contributions made by myself was for purposes such as this, I would never have donated the contributions that are clearly marked on the contribution boxes in the Kingdom Hall. Also, I am not happy about my contributions been used to pay legal fines that have been made over mishandling of child-abuse and other legal occurrences. Fines that result in the mishandling of legal issues should be made by those guilty of the wrongdoing, not by personal contributions made by myself and other congregation members.

A letter was read out recently in my congregation to pay a certain amount in order to benefit Kingdom Hall maintenance fees when such acts of vandalism or natural disasters occur. Some of the brothers and sisters paying this amount are not well off because they put the kingdom first. The needy widow in Jesus day is an example of such individuals. However, their money is being used on lavish purchases such as the Rivercrest Luxury Apartments instead of towards true Kingdom interests. You are no better than the money changers in the temple sir, and I do not want to be part of it. I find it sickening and I have lost sleep for several nights recently.

I would like to hear from you short with, to the following address,

If I do not receive a reply within two weeks of receipt of this email, I will launch a complaint with the Charity Commission.

insidetheKH

a stupid letter.... do not expect a reply. And the charity commission will not do something about that either.

rebel8

I don't think it's very nice to call it a stupid letter.

And good for him for giving the wts a little grief for their behavior.

Anyway, OP, I'm not sure I understand your objection in regards to these apartments. In the US, owners have a right to use their rental property for their own purposes and not renew leases for existing tenants. The tenants are aware of this when they sign the lease and move in. I'm sure it's disappointing, expensive and inconvenient for them to move, but it shouldn't come as a shock, and they're not "throwing them out on the street" really--just not renewing a lease. Unless I'm missing something?

Is it the word "luxury" that's bothering you? You might be interested in this. Sounds like some people are of the opinion that these are the opposite of luxurious.

What is the Charity Commission that you mentioned? Is it a legal entity with authority in New York State? I don't think so. The Attorney General's office has some authority over nonprofit organizations in NY but they do not get involved in complaints of this nature (people not liking what the money was spent on). They only get involved if there was a violation of law.

leaving_quietly

Luxury apartments or not, the issue is the price and the use of donated funds. The article states the sale price is not known, but the transfer tax indicates it was around $57 million, making it $228,000 per unit (250 units) BEFORE remodeling. You can be sure remodeling WILL happen. On top of that, the $21.6 million for the Hampton Inn in Newburgh, and the 48 unit apartment complex in Suffern (undisclosed price). So far, the $78.6 million in housing purchases is nearly 7 times as much as the estimated cost of building the Warwick HQ ($11.5 million according to http://observer.com/2011/09/all-along-the-watchtower/)

cultBgone

The wts is nothing more than a real estate company using unwitting members to fund their purchases.

Wake up, people....please wake up.

insidetheKH

@leaving_q that 11.5 million was paid for the land.

Construction costs and development costs for the new international headquarters are much higher.

At this moment we are building (with free labor) a convention centre here. Costs for the project are about 19 million dollars.

And that is a very small project compared with the world heaquarters

sowhatnow

do we know if those who will use these purchased buildings will be staying in them free of charge??

rebel8

ok, I guess I did not understand the sale price was the OP's objection. It sounded like buying something called "luxury" and not renewing leases was the issue.

Chaserious

It's not like they are frittering money away. Real estate is historically a fairly profitable investment vehicle. They've sold hundreds of millions of dollars worth of property in Brooklyn over the past few years. Aren't they entitled to reinvest some of that money in property elsewhere to essentially serve the same purpose as the Brooklyn property?

Complain about this if you feel strongly about it, but it seems like there are so many other things more worth griping over.

leaving_quietly

@leaving_q that 11.5 million was paid for the land.

Ah. My misunderstanding of the article. Seems you're right about that based on other articles I found.I kinda thought $11.5 million was too cheap. But, in building projects, a lot of cost is in labor, so with free labor, it's hard to estimate.

Also, I was thinking about the purchase. We can't say for sure it was with donated funds, of course. The sell-off in Brooklyn probably paid for these in full without use of CURRENT donated funds. So, I retract that part of my statement. Basically, I'm saying: I don't know where those funds are coming from. I probably shouldn't speak about something I know nothing about.

Complain about this if you feel strongly about it, but it seems like there are so many other things more worth griping over.

Well said.

Rivercrest Luxury Apartments

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