Watch the sky!
Neon-red letters that spell the new name of the massive office-and-retail complex planned for the former Jehovah’s Witnesses headquarters could float above Brooklyn Heights where the Watchtower letters once hovered, renderings show.
Workers tore down the 15-foot characters that formed the religious group’s iconic sign from the framework atop the Columbia Heights edifice last December as part of its new owners’ — who include President Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner — plan to transform the building into the multi-use space dubbed Panorama.
And a drawing on the property’s website shows very similar letters spelling out the new name atop its East River-facing roof. A rep for the developer said that sign is only hypothetical because whatever eventually gets hoisted onto the now-barren framework — which still features the blinking time and temperature — must first get the green light from the Department of Buildings.
But a sign for Panorama, or one advertising a future tenant of the complex, could float above it some day, according to the rep, who said the scaffolding may even remain empty.
One of the building’s new owners, however, told this newspaper that the removal of the Watchtower letters presented an opportunity to bring a “new beacon to the Brooklyn skyline” back when the old characters came down.
Developers Kushner Companies, Livwrk, and CIM Group — collectively called Columbia Heights Associates — purchased the former headquarters for $340 million in 2016, and unveiled plans to transform the buildings last year.
The owners filed an application last March to replace the Watchtower sign with characters spelling “30 CH” — shorthand for the complex’s address, according to the buildings department — but agency honchos rejected the proposal months later because it was incomplete, according to a spokeswoman.
A new application has yet to be filed, the agency rep said, and the city must review any future sign proposals to ensure they comply with zoning and construction codes.
