Church Sex Scandal Led to the Sale of the Brooklyn ‘Watchtower Building’ to Jared Kushner.

In 2013, a family filed a civil lawsuit in California against the Mountain View Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses, the French Valley Congregation, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, and the Christian Congregation of Jehovah’s Witnesses for knowingly covering up and protecting a pedophile elder for years.

Apparently fearful of what may become uncovered, the Watchtower Society fought vigorously against the lawsuit, refusing to turn over scores of documents pertinent to the case, and which revealed the epidemic of child abuse within the Jehovah’s Witness organization.

Since 2014, courts have slapped the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ parent corporation, the Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York, with multimillion-dollar judgments and sanctions for violating orders to hand over secret documents.

The judge in the case ordered the Watchtower Society to post a $300,000,000 assurance bond, forcing them to put their Brooklyn headquarters buildings up for sale to meet the requirement of the California case.

The Riverside Superior Court of California ruled in favor of the plaintiff and awarded her a default judgment of more than 4 million dollars. Watchtower filed multiple appeals, losing every time. The Watchtower Society was forced to purchase a bond for $6,024,228.58 from Travelers Insurance Company.

In comes Jared Kushner.

Jared’s family firm Kushner Companies paid $340 million for the two-city-block-sized Watchtower building and three neighboring Columbia Heights properties, in partnership with fellow developers Aby Rosen and Livwrk, a source with knowledge of the deal claimed. Jared had already bought five of their other buildings in 2013 for $373 million.

Kushner has inked a deal for a sixth neighboring building which is slated to become a 600-room hotel in conjunction with boutique hotelier Ian Schrager, who plans on including a nightclub, giant indoor swimming pool, and a rotating rooftop restaurant a la the Rainbow Room.

After a dramatic renovation and conversion of the five properties into office space for tech and creative tenants the building complex is now known as ‘Pamorama’.

About the writer: Matthew Woodruff is an Independent Journalist and Author who believes in Freely Accessible, Honest and Open Reporting. Visit at MattWoodruffAuthor.com.