Jehovah's Witnesses buy Fishkill apartments

[Tortuga]

A glass of wine, or wine mixed with lemonade, is the most common drink for meals in Spain, anyway. And beer is served at MacDonalds.

 

I had a can of Bock beer at a MacDonalds in Portugal. It was strange seeing beer on the menu.

[AH173]

That's my kind of McDonald's! I would be lovin' it - if I had one here! ☺

[limerick]

Stavro, your idea makes sense from a practical point of view;  Buy it  - Use it  -  Sell it.  However, the WB&T Society is a non-profit organization.  If they were to engage in buying, improving and selling for a profit, would that not jeopardize their tax exempt status?

 

The brothers need to handle these purchases carefully for another reason - rest assured in the local area the word is out - Watchtower is BUYING.  I can imagine the asking price for a multi-family property is going up for that reason alone.

sometimes, "straw purchases" are made... where the "buyer" is a person, or entity that handles the initial purchase so that this "seeing them coming" isn't a factor...

[jwhess]

Stavro, your idea makes sense from a practical point of view;  Buy it  - Use it  -  Sell it.  However, the WB&T Society is a non-profit organization.  If they were to engage in buying, improving and selling for a profit, would that not jeopardize their tax exempt status?

 

The brothers need to handle these purchases carefully for another reason - rest assured in the local area the word is out - Watchtower is BUYING.  I can imagine the asking price for a multi-family property is going up for that reason alone.

 

Even a non-profit corp has to do better than "break-even" or they will go out of 'business' (with rising future expenses).  Non-Profit just means that no individuals or shareholders or the like will profit from the corporation.  All proceeds not used are put back into the program (not siphoned off to line the pockets of others).  We have an entire legal department that is aware of all of the different regulations in all of the countries in which we operate.  I was visiting many of the Bethel complexes in August.  My son-in-law was volunteering in Warwick.  He was housed in a hotel in Fishkill and we stayed in the same facility (it was on the Society's list).  It was also used for the Regional Convention rooming on the same week.  It cost $100 / day plus.  If we had to rent 100 rooms there for the workers ($10,000 / day), you could see buying a complex would be cost effective.

[Doug]

You're right about that Limerick .  .   For example, Wikipedia >Walt Disney World > Planning and Construction, says:

 

"In 1959, Walt Disney Productions began looking for land for a second park to supplement Disneyland, which opened in 1955 in Anaheim, California.  To avoid a burst of land speculation, Walt Disney World Companies used various dummy corporations to acquire 27,443 acres of land.  Two large tracts totaling $1,500,000.00 (1959) were sold, and smaller tracts of flatlands and cattle pastures were purchased by exotic-sounding companies such as 'Ayefour Corporation', 'Latin-American Development and Management Corporation' and 'Reedy Creek Ranch Corporation', some of these names are now memorialized on a window above Main Street, U.S.A. in the Magic Kingdom."

 

This is not unusual in the business world. However, the Watchtower Corporation is a 501© Tax-Exempt Nonprofit organization. So, I doubt they could actually make an acquisition in the name of a shell corporation without sacrificing their tax exempt status.

 

And, to the savvy realtor, the buzz would have begun as they started selling the Brooklyn properties. Logically, they had to be relocating somewhere. As soon as they bought the restaurant and the apartment building in Tuxedo, the word was out. Of course, the brothers could leverage this to their advantage. For example, if a property owner thought he could gouge the 'church' because they need more housing, the brothers could just respond by saying 'there are many properties offering to sell to us, so if this deal doesn't work out, well .  .  . no hard feelings'.

[shali]

Those apartments are great - I say "sign me up!" LOL  Who cares how long they are used or what for (I hope all the retired C.O's who don't have a place to go can go there though) I just know that Jehovah is moving them to buy it for a good reason and he will also move the organization to sell it if need be.  

[MzT]

When I heard about the number of Kingdom Halls to be built in the U.S., compared to those in poorer countries, I was similarly saddened — not enough to shed tears about it though. I have friends and family in P.N.G. who travel long distances to get to meetings. Many are extremely poor and can't afford to contribute to the building of a Kingdom Hall. "Why is the Society building so many Kingdom Halls in such an affluent country, and not the poorer ones?" I thought. After prayerful consideration, and after this months program, I am confident that they are doing the right thing....

While the U.S., as a country may be seen as affluent, keep in mind that there are MANY poor congregations within the U.S. that also could not afford to build a Kingdom Hall here due to the high cost of land or build costs in their area. As a result of the decision to shift funds from building in US to other countries, many here also traveled long distances to share KHs with others. My in-laws had to travel quite a distance for nearly 10 years. They and their congregation was completely overjoyed to finally have a local KH.

When I was growing up in the truth, we used to have to save money locally to build our own KH. Under that arrangement, lots of congregations here would never have been able to build and would face long distance traveling to share KHs as well. That sounds a lot like the same conditions that your friends were enduring right?