THE GRAND TOTAL - The Watchtower's Brooklyn New York Property Sell-off Listed: 2004 to 2018

[Jack Ryan]

 

GRAND TOTAL OF $2,194,513,000

• It was announced in 2003 that the printing was to be moved to Wallkill leading to the sell-off of six named properties in Brooklyn for a total of $302,620,000.

• It was announced in 2011 that the World Headquarters was to be moved to Warwick leading to a sell-off of twenty-seven named properties in Brooklyn for a total of $1,891,893,000.

• It is believed that the Watchtower still owns two small (non-commercial) residential properties in Brooklyn.

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Printing Moves to Wallkill

Kingdom Ministry, September 2003

The existing facilities in Brooklyn cannot accommodate the larger, more productive equipment that we need. Therefore, it was determined that the printery operations should be moved to Wallkill where efficient printing, binding, and shipping equipment could be installed.

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/202003328#h=3

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Property	Price	Date	Sales Ledger
360 Furman Street	$205,020,000	Apr 2004	Sales ledger
108 Joralemon Street	$2,500,000	Apr 2005	Sales ledger
89 Hicks Street	$14,000,000	Jul 2006	Sales ledger
67 Livingston Street	$18,600,000	Mar 2007	Sales ledger
8-10 Clark Street	$12,500,000	Apr 2007	Sales ledger
Standish Hotel (169 Columbia Hts)	$50,000,000	Nov 2007	Sales ledger
TOTAL	$302,620,000

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World Headquarters Moves to Warwick

Watchtower, August 15, 2012, page 17

127th annual meeting, held on Saturday, October 1, 2011

There are plans to develop a 248-acre (100 ha) property at Warwick. “Although we are not yet certain of Jehovah’s will regarding Warwick,” said Brother Pierce, “we are proceeding to develop the site with the intention of relocating the world headquarters of Jehovah’s Witnesses there.” Plans are also being made to use a 50-acre (20 ha) parcel of land situated six miles (10 km) north of Warwick to facilitate the staging of machinery and building material. “Once construction is permitted, we hope to complete the entire project within four years,” said Brother Pierce. “Then our property in Brooklyn can be sold.”

“Has the Governing Body changed its mind about the closeness of the great tribulation?” asked Brother Pierce. “Not at all,” he answered. “If the great tribulation interrupts our plans, that will be wonderful, absolutely wonderful!”

https://wol.jw.org/en/wol/d/r1/lp-e/2012605#h=15

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Property	Price	Date	Sales Ledger
50 Orange Street	$7,100,000	Dec 2011	Sales ledger
165 Columbia Heights	$4,100,000	Jan 2012	Sales ledger
161 Columbia Heights	$2,950,000	Mar 2012	Sales ledger
105 Willow Street	$3,330,000	Apr 2012	Sales ledger
183 Columbia Heights	$6,600,000	Apr 2012	Sales ledger
67 Remsen Street	$3,250,000	Sep 2012	Sales ledger
34 Orange Street	$2,825,000	Nov 2012	Sales ledger
Bossert Hotel (98 Montague St)	$81,000,000	Nov 2012	Sales ledger
200 Water St (173 & 177 Front St)	$30,600,000	Mar 2013	Sales ledger
76 Willow Street	$3,025,000	Jul 2013	Sales ledger
81 Prospect Street	$23,000,000	Oct 2013	Sales ledger
64 Prospect St (117 Adams St)	$46,000,000	Oct 2013	Sales ledger
175 Pearl Street	$53,000,000	Oct 2013	Sales ledger
137 Pearl Street (77 Sands St)	$54,000,000	Oct 2013	Sales ledger
107 Adams Street	$64,000,000	Oct 2013	Sales ledger
124 Columbia Height (122 & 128 Columbia Hts)	$105,000,000	Apr 2016	Sales ledger
25-30 Columbia Hts/55 & 67 Furman St	$340,000,000	Aug 2016	Sales ledger
61 Adams Street	$65,000,000	Nov 2016	Sales ledger
85 Jay Street	$345,000,000	Dec 2016	Sales ledger
107 Columbia Heights	$87,500,000	May 2017	Sales ledger
119 Columbia Heights	$18,000,000	Aug 2017	Sales ledger
97 Columbia Heights	$58,000,000	Aug 2017	Sales ledger
90 Sands Street	$135,000,000	Aug 2017	Sales ledger
Towers Hotel (21 Clark St)	$202,500,000	Oct 2017	Sales ledger
74 Adams Street	$60,000,000	Nov 2017	Sales ledger
30 Front Street (One York St)	$91,113,000	Dec 2018	Sales ledger
TOTAL	$1,891,893,000

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Watchtower Still Owns

Property	Type	Link/s
80 Willow Street	Townhouse	Still owned by WT in September 2018
86 Willow Street	Carriage House	Still owned by WT in September 2018

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NOTE Property Addresses: Some of the above properties - which sometimes span whole blocks - have a number of official addresses which are also sometimes different to the 'as-used' WT address. Although 'one' property sale is listed above, it might actually 'officially' represent up to four properties that are joined together. There where no property sales between November 2007 and December 2011.

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Please comment below if you have a query

[Jack Ryan]

Over the last thirteen years (from 2005) the Watchtower says they've spent more on special pioneers, missionaries, and traveling overseers in their field service assignments - a total of $2,204,000,000 - than the total of ALL the monies they received from all Brooklyn properties sales combined, in the same time period.

JW Broadcasting, May 2015

"In an effort to keep you informed of the support that is needed for this great work I have the following information to share. We have looked forward to this next fiscal year and projected the expenditure for all the theocratic initiatives we are scheduling. In doing the math we found that the amount of money flowing out will be much greater than the amount of money we have coming in at this time."

Look at the 9:08 area.....

 

I believe the Watchtower, over the years, has slowly evolved into a colossal international organization that has grown and grown. There's A LOT of people on the 'payroll' - even 'volunteers' cost money in expenses, feeding, looking after, and accommodation - and it all adds up. Big time.

In 1966, there was just one Bethelite for every 664 JWs - by 2015, there was one Bethelite for every 307 JWs.

• Chart of the number of Bethelites over the years

During the following Service Years, Watchtower says they spend the following on caring for special pioneers, missionaries, and traveling overseers in their field service assignments. In 'real terms', allowing for inflation, the WT's spend between 2005 compared to 2017 increased by around 60%.

Year	Amount
2017	$202 million
2016	$213 million
2015	$236 million
2014	$224 million
2013	$200 million
2012	$184 million
2011	$173 million
2010	$155 million
2009	$140 million
2008	$141 million
2007	$121 million
2006	$111 million
2005	$104 million
TOTAL	$2,204,000,000

 

[Jack Ryan]

This doesn't even take into account payouts in lawsuits. We know that there have been many of those that were sealed where we cannot even see what the settlement amount was, and there are recent multi-million dollar judgments that are public.

At this point, I don't see what they have left to sell other than investments they may be sitting on or Kingdom Halls...but even a Kingdom Hall in a very expensive area isn't going to sell for more than somewhere between a few hundred thousand USD to possibly a million if it was in an urban area with high property values.

They're bleeding, and it isn't stopping. It seems clear from this why they cut back on traveling overseers. It would be interesting to see how much they have cut back on missionaries. At this point, I wouldn't be surprised if most of their costs are paying for Bethelites and their healthcare, among other things. Bethelites are part of the Special Order of Full Time Servants, just like special pioneers, missionaries, etc. They're included in that dollar amount.

Edit: I just realized this ALSO doesn't take into account how much they spend building Warwick. Do we even know that amount? Probably less than $100,000,000 I am thinking

[JW Insider]

Wallkill only prints the new Bible and new Songbook, by default. All other books are printed outside the United States. There are some softcover book exceptions, such as the new Ezekiel book, but this is only supplementary printing for that book. (If you take a tour there you can still get your own paper copy.)

There are some other expenses in running an international organization. There are large conventions that still expand beyond what our Assembly Halls can support. Rebuilding after natural disasters and rebuilding and retrofitting after mold problems and plumbing problems, etc. (The mold problem is big from 1980s "quickbuilds" which had no windows for sunlight and used NY style one-sided vapor barriers that were not suitable for more tropical climates or areas with constant seasonal temperature fluctuations.) There are also now truck and auto fleets, software licenses, professional equipment training, purchases of food from outside suppliers, and a lot of other things (including some printing, shipping & transportation) that are no longer handled in-house.

[Evacuated]

18 hours ago, JW Insider said:

running an international organization

The more of this information the better!

What a colossal task to keep this whole logistical juggernaut moving and yet still keep the preaching work, and the shepherding of the flock, to the fore!