CIM Group

Former Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower complex could become 600+ apartments

Renderings courtesy of CIM Group

March 12, 2026

Former Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower complex could become 600+ apartments

Brooklyn Heights’ iconic Watchtower Building, the longtime world headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses, may soon be transformed into a waterfront development with hundreds of homes. Developer CIM Group is proposing a mixed-use redevelopment at 25-30 Columbia Heights that would include 661 apartments, some of them affordable, along with 113,000 square feet of commercial space. The project is expected to enter the city's uniform land use review procedure (ULURP). CIM presented the plan to Brooklyn Community Board 2 last June before filing a land-use application in December, according to city records.
get the details

Morris Adjmi’s mixed-use towers top out in Dumbo

Rendering by Williams New York

September 16, 2020

Morris Adjmi’s mixed-use towers top out in Dumbo

By Devin Gannon

Architect Morris Adjmi's latest residential project officially topped out in Dumbo last month. A former parking lot, 85 Jay Street is now home to two sleek 21-story towers comprised of residential units and space for retail. Dubbed Front & York, the complex will bring a mix of 728 condo and rental units to a full block in the neighborhood when it opens next year, making it one of the largest developments in Dumbo. Current availability for the condos ranges from a one-bedroom for $965,000 to a four-bedroom penthouse for $7.85 million.
Learn more

Massive Two Bridges projects can move forward without City Council approval

Rendering: SHoP Architects

August 27, 2020

Massive Two Bridges projects can move forward without City Council approval

By Devin Gannon

Three projects that include the construction of four towers and the creation of nearly 3,000 housing units in Two Bridges meet all zoning requirements and can move forward without City Council approval, an appeals court ruled Thursday. The Appellate Division of State Supreme Court reversed a lower court's ruling that had stopped the Manhattan megaproject from going ahead.
Learn more

Trump’s Soho hotel experiences business boom after rebranding without the president’s name

Image: Trump Soho; Donald Trump via Wikimedia Commons

February 27, 2019

Trump’s Soho hotel experiences business boom after rebranding without the president’s name

By Alexandra Alexa

After a prolonged economic slump and a not-so-subtle rebranding, Soho’s Dominick Hotel—formerly known as the Trump Soho—has experienced a formidable increase in revenue, as Bloomberg reports. The revenue per available room rose more than 20 percent from last year. The hotel’s average nightly rate increased by $51 (a 20 percent increase compared to just 2 percent among the hotel's competitors) and had 7,000 more bookings in 2018 than in 2017.
More info

Events & Things To Do

See renderings of Morris Adjmi’s Front & York, Dumbo’s biggest new development

Renderings courtesy of Williams New York

January 22, 2019

See renderings of Morris Adjmi’s Front & York, Dumbo’s biggest new development

By Alexandra Alexa

The future of the empty, former parking lot at 85 Jay Street was revealed last week when developers released new details and renderings of the highly-anticipated project. Named Front & York after its bordering streets, the development will be a 21-story residential and retail complex bringing 728 new apartments (a mix of condos and rentals) to the neighborhood. According to reporting by The Bridge, the development will be the largest yet in Dumbo and will supply enough housing to increase the population of the upscale neighborhood by 25 percent.
Find out more

Controversial Two Bridges towers get city approval despite community ambivalence

Rendering courtesy of Handel Architects.

December 6, 2018

Controversial Two Bridges towers get city approval despite community ambivalence

By Michelle Cohen

Update 12/7/18: The City Council and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer filed a suit in the Manhattan Supreme Court "claiming city planners usurped the Council’s authority over land-use issues in approving the project," reported The Real Deal. The City Planning Commission gave the green light Wednesday to a controversial application filed by four developers to build three new residential towers in the Lower East Side's Two Bridges development, which are expected to add 3,000 housing units between them, The Real Deal reports. 700 units will be affordable. The large-scale residential towers were approved in a 10-3 vote on Wednesday, after a lengthy, often acrimonious review process. The towers are comprised of JDS Development’s 1,000-unit rental tower at 247 Cherry Street, L+M Development and CIM Group’s 798-foot tower at 260 South Street; and Starrett Corporation’s 730-foot building at 259 Clinton Street.
Find out more

Passing $2B in sales, 432 Park becomes highest selling building in NYC ever

Photo via Douglas Elliman

February 7, 2018

Passing $2B in sales, 432 Park becomes highest selling building in NYC ever

By Devin Gannon

CIM Group and Macklowe Properties announced on Wednesday that the world's tallest residential building just broke another record: the single best-selling building in New York City. According to the developers, they have sold $2 billion in luxury condominiums at 432 Park Avenue, a 1,396-foot tower designed by renowned architect Rafael Viñoly. The building's most significant closings include 48 residences selling for more than $20 million each.
More this way

Real Estate Trends

In the middle of the night, Trump Soho gets rebranded as the Dominick Hotel

Image: Trump Soho; Donald Trump via Wikimedia Commons

December 22, 2017

In the middle of the night, Trump Soho gets rebranded as the Dominick Hotel

By Devin Gannon

After an 11-year economic slump, local protests and multiple lawsuits, the Trump Soho condominium and hotel at 246 Spring Street has officially become the Dominick Hotel and Spa. Last month, the Trump Organization cut ties with the property after making a deal with the building’s owner, CIM Group, to step away from the hotel amid a decline in room prices. Between 11 pm on Wednesday and 3 am on Thursday, workers removed the Trump Soho lettering from the facade of the glitzy 46-story hotel, literally erasing President Trump's association with the building.
Find out more

Events & Things To Do

City officials aim to close loophole for construction of Two Bridges skyscrapers

Rendering of 247 Cherry Street via SHoP Architects

December 6, 2017

City officials aim to close loophole for construction of Two Bridges skyscrapers

By Devin Gannon

In an effort to slow construction of three residential towers in the Two Bridges neighborhood, City Council Member Margaret Chin and Manhattan Borough President Gale Brewer will submit an application to the Department of City Planning that forces the plan to go through the city’s land use review process. Developments at the waterfront site include a 1,000+ foot tower from JDS Development Group, a 1.1 million-square-foot development from L+M Development and CIM Group, and a 724-foot rental building from Starrett Development. According to Politico, the Manhattan pols hope the review process will encourage public scrutiny of the projects, including a demand for shorter structures.
Find out more

Policy

Trump dumps Soho hotel after glitzy launch and 11-year slump

Image: Trump Soho; Donald Trump via Wikimedia Commons.

November 27, 2017

Trump dumps Soho hotel after glitzy launch and 11-year slump

By Michelle Cohen

New York City has never, barring perhaps a short stretch of the go-go '80s, been Trump country. But the Trump Organization's high-profile Midtown properties blend with the area's flow of international money and glamour-seeking tourists. Much further downtown, the Trump Soho condominium/hotel at 246 Spring Street has been at best a minor embarrassment in the neighborhood since the ambitious announcement of its birth on Donald J. Trump's TV show "The Apprentice" 11 years ago. Now, what was launched as "an awe-inspiring masterpiece," is being severed from the Trump fold, the New York Times reports. In addition to poor economic performance, the 46-story luxury hotel has attracted opposition from locals since its arrival, protests during Trump's candidacy and scrutiny after the election due to its ties to a Russian dealmaker.
Find out more

Artist proposes installing a Hollywood-style ‘Brooklyn!’ sign to attract visitors

By Michelle Cohen

"Brooklyn is a potent idea as well as a place,” according to Susanna Briselli, who explains in the Brooklyn Eagle that the borough's name "summons vivid images and associations.” Briselli, who is an artist and photographer, suggests this potent chemistry is a compelling enough reason to create an enormous free-standing illuminated sign that reads “Brooklyn!” The massive work would be used to draw in more visitors and increase value, placed where the soon-to-be removed "Watchtower" sign in Brooklyn Heights now stands, or at another highly visible site such as Pier 7.
A sign of the times

Events & Things To Do

June 27, 2017

Brooklyn’s iconic ‘Watchtower’ sign coming down to make way for Kushner’s Panorama office complex

By Devin Gannon

For nearly 50 years, the neon red 15-foot-tall ‘Watchtower’ sign has sat atop the former headquarters of the Jehovah’s Witnesses luminously overlooking Brooklyn Heights. However, earlier this month, the religious group filed a permit application seeking to remove the sign. According to The Real Deal, this comes almost a year after developers Kushner Companies, CIM Group and LIVWRK Holdings purchased the spot at 25-30 Columbia Heights for $340 million with plans to convert the building into a 635,000-square-foot office complex, “Panorama.”
Find out more

New Developments

May 31, 2017

Renderings revealed of Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower transformation into ‘Panorama’

By Devin Gannon

Last summer, developers CIM Group, Kushner Companies and LIVWRK acquired the Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower building at 25-30 Columbia Heights in Brooklyn Heights for $340 million. The building, known for its iconic red sign, served as the world headquarters of the religious group for years, but they're relocating to Warwick, New York. Now, work has begun to turn its three 19th century brick and timber buildings into 635,000 square feet of office space, as well as 35,000 square feet of retail and outdoor areas, as Fast Company reports. The new space will be known as Panorama, for its stunning views of the Manhattan skyline and Brooklyn Bridge.
See renderings of the Panorama complex

December 10, 2016

VOTE for 6sqft’s 2016 Building of the Year!

By 6sqft

For new developments, 2015 was the year of reveals, but 2016 was all about watching these buildings reshape our city. Ahead we've narrowed a list of 12 news-making residential structures, each noted for their distinctive design, blockbuster prices, or their game-changing potential on the skyline or NYC neighborhoods. Which of these you think deserves 6sqft's title of 2016 Building of the Year? Have your say below. Polls for our third annual competition will be open up until 11:59 p.m., Sunday, December 11th*, and we will announce the winner on Tuesday, December 13th!
Learn more about each of the buildings in the running here

New Developments

December 2, 2016

Controversial Lower East Side site getting two more 700+ foot towers

By Dana Schulz

L to R: One Manhattan Square, 247 Cherry Street, 260 South Street, and 271-283 South Street. The image above, created by CityRealty, depicts the possible massing of the new towers; No official design has been released When L+M Partners and CIM Group announced plans last May for two 50-story towers at 260 South Street, their project joined a growing list of controversial towers sprouting up along the Two Bridges waterfront, including Extell's 823-foot condo One Manhattan Square, JDS and SHoP Architects' possible 1,000+ foot rental at 247 Cherry Street, and Starret Group's shorter rental at 275 South Street. Now, in what's becoming a trend for the Lower East Side-meets-Chinatown 'hood, L+M and CIM have revealed plans for their project that actually show increased heights of 69 and 62 stories, or 798 and 728 feet. As first reported by The Lo-Down, the developers plan to include up to 1,350 apartments, 338 of which will be reserved as affordable, senior housing, ground-floor retail, landscaped outdoor spaces by Mathews Nielsen, and an upgraded flood-protection system.
Renderings and more details ahead

Uncategorized

November 11, 2016

432 Park Avenue will become a beacon of light beginning Monday

By Diane Pham

Just in case you had trouble spotting the Western Hemisphere's tallest residential tower, beginning Monday, 432 Park Avenue will debut a brand new lighting feature that will turn the 1,396-foot supertall into a glowing beacon. As LLNYC reports, 32 LEDs will fill the tower's five open-air "drum floors" where the building's mechanicals are situated. 432 Park's starchitect, Rafael Viñoly, worked with HDLC Architectural Lighting Design to develop the scheme.
more details here

Architecture And Design

This Is What the Lower East Side Skyline Could Look Like, More Tall Towers Planned

L to R: One Manhattan Square, 247 Cherry Street, 260 South Street, and 271-283 South Street. The above image, created by CityRealty.com, depicts the possible massing of the new towers; No official design has been released

July 26, 2016

This Is What the Lower East Side Skyline Could Look Like, More Tall Towers Planned

By Dana Schulz

The hotly contested Two Bridges neighborhood--the area along the East River, near the footings of the Manhattan and Brooklyn Bridges where the Lower East Side meets Chinatown--has been making headlines nearly every week, whether it be for a new supertall tower or local residents' opposition to what they feel is out-of-scale development for the mostly low-rise and low-income neighborhood. Just yesterday, The Lo-Down obtained information through a Freedom of Information Law (FOIL) request that reveals preliminary plans for two more residential projects that together "would add more than 2,100 residential units and 1.7 million square feet" to the area. A building at 271-283 South Street may rise 60 stories, while another at 260 South Street could reach 66 stories. To put into perspective just how much this planned and under-construction new development will alter the LES skyline, CityRealty.com has put together this Google Earth rendering of all the proposed towers.
Get all the details right here

New Developments

March 10, 2016

Closing Time at 432 Park: A Look at the Numbers at NYC’s Tallest and Most Expensive Building

By Dana Schulz

Closings at Macklowe Properties/CIM Group‘s Billionaires’ Row blockbuster 432 Park Avenue officially commenced just eight days into the new year, and now that enough time has gone by for these sales to be re-listed as rentals, CityRealty has put together an informative infographic that takes a look at the numbers at New York City's tallest and most expensive residential building. There's a lot of fun and fascinating info to be found ahead, but one of the most surprising facts? Of the 141 units available, only 13 have sold to date.
See the full infographic here

February 5, 2016

432 Park Avenue’s First Recorded Sale Just Became Its First Listed Rental for $60K a Month

By Michelle Cohen

Less than a month after 432 Park Avenue recorded its first sale at $18,116,000, the first unit to close at the Billionaires' Row blockbuster has appeared on the rental market for $60,000 a month (h/t Curbed). As 6sqft previously reported, "The unit is #35B, a massive 4,003-square-foot, three-bedroom pad with four-and-a-half baths, a private elevator landing, and 10-foot by 10-foot windows providing southern and western exposures with park views." It was purchased via an LLC, 432 PARKVIEW, but now that it's been re-listed as a rental, it's also the first apartment whose interiors we get a peek at outside the generic, digitally-enhanced promotional images that accompany listings.
Take a look at the generic, non-digitally-enhanced interiors

January 8, 2016

432 Park Avenue Records Its First Blockbuster Closing at $18.1M!

By Diane Pham

And so it begins! Closings at Macklowe Properties/CIM Group's Billionaires' Row blockbuster 432 Park Avenue have officially commenced with its first sale showing an impressive $18.116 million figure, as city records released this afternoon reveal. The unit is #35B, a massive 4,003-square-foot, three-bedroom pad with four-and-a-half baths, a private elevator landing, and 10-foot by 10-foot windows providing southern and western exposures with park views. Documents show that the palatial home was purchased via a LLC, 432 PARKVIEW.
more on the sale and the floor plan here

CIM Group

Former Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower complex could become 600+ apartments

Morris Adjmi’s mixed-use towers top out in Dumbo

Massive Two Bridges projects can move forward without City Council approval

Trump’s Soho hotel experiences business boom after rebranding without the president’s name

See renderings of Morris Adjmi’s Front & York, Dumbo’s biggest new development

Controversial Two Bridges towers get city approval despite community ambivalence

Passing $2B in sales, 432 Park becomes highest selling building in NYC ever

In the middle of the night, Trump Soho gets rebranded as the Dominick Hotel

City officials aim to close loophole for construction of Two Bridges skyscrapers

Trump dumps Soho hotel after glitzy launch and 11-year slump

Artist proposes installing a Hollywood-style ‘Brooklyn!’ sign to attract visitors

Brooklyn’s iconic ‘Watchtower’ sign coming down to make way for Kushner’s Panorama office complex

Renderings revealed of Jehovah’s Witnesses Watchtower transformation into ‘Panorama’

Controversial Lower East Side site getting two more 700+ foot towers

$5M Yorkville home offers a flexible frame for townhouse living

432 Park Avenue will become a beacon of light beginning Monday

This Is What the Lower East Side Skyline Could Look Like, More Tall Towers Planned

Closing Time at 432 Park: A Look at the Numbers at NYC’s Tallest and Most Expensive Building

432 Park Avenue’s First Recorded Sale Just Became Its First Listed Rental for $60K a Month

432 Park Avenue Records Its First Blockbuster Closing at $18.1M!

144 Vanderbilt Avenue in Clinton Hill

CIM Group

Pitch a Story

Interested in seeing the property in person?

Interested in seeing the property in person?

Distinctive Post Form

Get in Touch

Send us a Tip

Interesting in learning more about purchasing a new home?

Thinking about selling your home?

Sell a Home (Footer)

Before You Move On from this Page.

Your Daily Doseof NYC Life!

Before You Move On
from this Page.

Your Daily Dose
of NYC Life!