Brooklyn Eagle article discussing the underground "pedestrian tunnels" connecting Jehovah Witness buildings in Brooklyn Heights.
http://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/watchtower-tunnels-mysterious-lingering-remnants-ministerial-heights-presence-2013-10-16
October, 2013 article on how the Kushner Co. acquired the Watchtower building and will determine fate of the tunnels:
https://therealdeal.com/2013/10/16/watchtower-tunnels-unlikely-to-be-around-much-longer/
This is adjacent to the Columbia Waterfront and Red Hook Piers area, an international shipping district.
https://www.brooklyneagle.com/articles/2017/4/24/jehovahs-witnesses-start-closing-their-brooklyn-heights-tunnels
The religious organization has sold numerous Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO properties to the Kushner Cos., which Jared Kushner headed until he stepped aside to serve as senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Trump.
Kushner Cos. and its investment partners paid $340 million for the Watchtower's Brooklyn Heights headquarters complex at 25-30 Columbia Heights — which has an iconic red neon sign that says “Watchtower” on it.
In DUMBO, Kushner Cos. and its investment partners paid $345 million for 85 Jay St., a parking lot with about 1 million square feet of development rights. And the company and its investment partners paid $375 million for a complex with former Bible-printing plants on Prospect, Adams, Sands and Pearl streets that it has turned into a techie-friendly office campus called DUMBO Heights.
WOW! IN APRIL, 2017, THEY CLOSED OFF THE TUNNEL NETWORK AND POURED CONCRETE IN THEM!!
The Watchtower, which has sold off many of its Brooklyn Heights properties, is starting to shut down the tunnels that connect them. Last week, the Jehovah's Witnesses deactivated one of the tunnels that connect their big Brooklyn Heights residential buildings by filling it with concrete.
The Watchtower's pedestrian passageways form an underground network extending from 124 Columbia Heights, which overlooks the Promenade, to The Towers, a former hotel on the corner of Clark and Willow streets.
The Watchtower closed off part of this underground network on Monday, April 17, 2017.
Andrew Porter, who has lived in Brooklyn Heights since 1968, saw a truck outside 124 Columbia Heights pouring concrete into the tunnel “through a raised access hatch” that day, he told the Brooklyn Eagle.
The concrete-filled tunnel stretches between 124 Columbia Heights and 107 Columbia Heights, which is a gated 11-story residential property with a landscaped courtyard.
City Department of Transportation permits indicate that both a concrete truck and “cellular concrete” pumping equipment were needed for the tunnel deactivation.
Cellular concrete, which is also called Foamcrete, is a lightweight cement-based material with lots of gas bubbles in it.
According to the Transportation Department permits, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York was in charge of the job.
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carmencita ago
WOW. This is amazing to me. So JW is slimming down it's business? The must have stopped the Watchtower Paper. This is somewhat of a mystery.
bopper ago
I'll have em give you a call. I'll give you just three minutes to shoosh them away.
carmencita ago
Ha Ha. It always is a trick to come up with an excuse I stopped opening the door!
GhostOfSwartz ago
I've found squirrel hunting in the front yard with my bow typically scares them off. At least the lone guy was afraid to get out. The ladies were not as intimidated by a woman in muck boots and shorts thinning out the bushy tailed thugs. My husband prefers answering the door in undies. All jokes aside, you gotta appreciate their diligence.
carmencita ago
Very funny. We don't have them very often anymore. I have been able to avoid them now, I look out through my window and am pretty good at spotting them. I just don't answer now.