BY KEVIN DUGGAN
A nonprofi t developer wants
to retrofi t a tower formerly
owned by the Jehovah’s Witnesses
in Downtown Brooklyn
to provide housing and
services to formerly homeless
Brooklynites.
Developer Breaking Ground
fi led a land-use review application
with the city to rezone the
29-story tower at 90 Sands St.,
which would pave the way for
the construction of 500 apartments
— most of which will
be tailor-made for the recently
homeless and Brooklynites in
need of affordable housing, according
to its chief.
“Our mission is to work
with vulnerable populations
and help them get back on their
feet and stay on their feet living
in permanent housing for the
long term,” said Brenda Rosen,
chief executive offi cer at Breaking
Grounds, before Community
Board 2’s Land Use committee
on Nov. 20.
The company plans to refurbish
the 1992-built tower between
Jay and Pearl streets —
which once housed volunteers
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for the Christian evangelist
group — and open 305 so-called
“supportive housing” units,
which come packaged with social
services that help residents
obtain employment, manage
their medical needs, and transition
back into stable housing.
The development will also
include 202 below-market-rate
rentals ranging from $504 for
a studio to $2,000 for a one-bedroom,
according to a rep for
Breaking Ground.
The company hosts some
4,000 units across the city
and already operates four
supportive housing centers
in the borough, including a
Schermerhorn Street residential
building between Smith
and Hoyt streets, which they
opened in 2009 and which also
houses the dance school Brooklyn
Ballet.
They bought 90 Sands St.
from Big Apple developer RFR
Realty in August 2018 for $170
million, one year after that
company purchased it from
the Witnesses for $135 million,
as the religious group sold off a
swath of properties in the area
to move upstate.
Breaking Ground hopes to
start interior renovations in
June 2020, plans to revamp a
cellar space for use as a community,
commercial, or light
manufacturing facility, and expects
to turn over a plaza outside
the building at Jay Street
for public use, the company’s
vice president of development
David Beer said at the civic
meeting.
The application to change
the building’s permitted use
from manufacturing to residential
also includes an adjoining
eight-story offi ce tower at
175 Pearl St., another building
the Witnesses sold to RFR bigwigs
in 2013 for $53 million,
and which is now owned by
New Jersey fi rm Normandy
Realty, which bought it off the
developer in 2017 for just north
of $102 million, according to records.
Some 82 percent of the units
will be studios and 18 percent
will be one-bedroom apartments,
with rental units prices
aimed at households making
30-100 percent of the area’s
A developer wants to retrofi t a Jehova’s Witness tower into housing for
the formerly homeless. Photo by Kevin Duggan
median income, which is currently
set at $96,100 for a family
of three.
One community board member
said the company should offer
larger units too.
“They’re managing it with
a whole big building full of single
male, single female,” said
Hazra Ali. “I think you should
have done more… even if you
added 20 to that with more
units.”
Another civic guru praised
the company’s mission of building
affordable housing, and
said they’d make a welcome addition
to the neighborhood.
“They’re addressing a need
for the community that is not
being met. I’ll tell you right
now, commercial developers
will not address this,” said Bill
Flunoy.
Developers look to build housing
for homeless in Downtown tower
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