Brooklyn’s new high
Watchtower HQ transformed into Panorama
T HE Watchtower
is gone, Panorama is coming — and New Yorkers will soon see the first hints of a new, public-friendly commercial complex at what was once the Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters.
Panorama is the name for the five-building complex purchased for $340 million in 2016 by Columbia Heights Associates, a joint venture of CIM Group, LIVWRK Holdings and Kushner Companies.
They’re spending $80 million more to renovate, modernize and recast the properties for high-end, cuttingedge office use and to create new stores and restaurants.
LIVWRK founder and CEO Asher Abehsera said of the Witnesses’ nearly 50 years at the DUMBO East River waterfront site, “People who lived next door had no idea what was behind the gates and fences.”
Now that the Witnesses have moved to Warwick, NY, “the buildings will be repainted from sand color to ‘early dawn’ — which means light gray,” Abehsera said.
Later, “the black films over the windows will be removed.”
The largest buildings on the two-acre campus, 25 and 30 Columbia Heights, connected by a sky bridge, will have about 600,000 square feet of office space between them. No. 30 is to have 23,000 square feet of retail and No. 25, a mere 1,000. A dramatic outdoor staircase leading to stores will be in- stalled soon at No. 30.
The smaller Nos. 50 and 58 Columbia Heights and 55 Furman St. will have a total of 63,000 square feet of offices and 10,000 square feet of stores. Alternatively, No. 58 Columbia Heights could also be a boutique hotel.
Office asking rents will be “$75 to $85 per square foot,” Abehsera said. But a city program to encourage moving employees to outer boroughs could shave $15 to $20 per square foot off what tenants would actually pay.
The joint venture has tapped a JLL leasing team led by tristate president Pe
ter Riguardi and vice-chair Mitchell Konsker.
Panorama overlooks the river, spectacular new Brooklyn Bridge Park and an NYC Ferry landing. The buildings are not landmarked and could have been demolished, but the partners saw the potential to create office buildings “in a horizontal, not a vertical, environment,” Abehsera said. Setback outdoor terraces, “like a collection of penthouses,” will allow for 55,000 square feet of undulating gardens.
Abehsera terms the location “fairy tale Brooklyn” with “views on views” of nearby neighborhoods and of the Manhattan skyline.
It reflects Panorama’s undeniable “cool factor.” Abehsera aims to sell it not only to local companies but also to firms from farther afield “who don’t really know Brooklyn.”
Creative firms? “Every company now sees itself as creative,” he chuckled.
The Witnesses kept the buildings in excellent shape and more modern inside than many knew. “The bones are spectacular,” Abehsera said. “Reinforced concrete floors. The slab-to-slab height is 11.6 feet with up to 18 feet in some of the penthouses.
“There are massive windows all around. Column spacing of around 20 feet creates tremendous efficiencies,” Abehsera said. “We have nice, chunky floor plates from 20,000 to 38,000 square feet. Many have outdoor terraces.” Good fiberoptic infrastructure was already in place and, “We’re enhancing it.”
Panorama’s ownership is a partnership, although it’s been misrepresented as a “Kushner acquisition.” The company, formerly led by presidential adviser Jared
Kushner, has only a minorityy stake. Bloomberg recently reported that CIM, the team be
hind Harry Macklowe’s 432 Park Ave., owns 95 percent and Kushner only 5 percent. But Abehsera said, “I have no idea how Bloomberg gets their data. We [LIVWRK] definitely have equity in the project, and the equity is meaningful for us.”