The ‘Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn' finally has a future — after years of failed renovation attempts
The Italian Renaissance Revival-style building is an icon of Montague Street.
The locally beloved landmark, where the Brooklyn Dodgers celebrated their only World Series championship in 1955, languished through more than a decade of stop-start renovations before it was recently snapped up by SomeraRoad, the Brooklyn Eagle reported.
6 The Hotel Bossert sits on the corner of Montague and Hicks streets.
Dylan Wilson
6 The hotel in its heyday housed several Brooklyn Dodgers and happening parties in its top-floor bar.
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The years of false starts and pesky scaffolding began after the former hotel's 2012 purchase by developers Joseph Chetrit and David Bistricer for $81 million.
The previous owners planned to reopen the relic as a boutique hotel with 302 rooms, according to the Eagle.
Their renovation efforts repeatedly stalled, however. Chetrit bought out Bistricer in 2019, the Real Deal reported. The saga ended earlier this year with $177 million of debt and a foreclosure auction.
Beach Point Capital acquired the decaying hotel from the Chetrit Group at auction for $999,000. SomeraRoad purchased the property from Beach Point Capital, with the latter providing a $71 million mortgage, according to the Real Deal.
The 14-story Hotel Bossert was constructed as an apartment hotel in 1909 by lumber magnate Louis Bossert. Its nautical-themed Marine Roof Supper Club was the toast of the town in its mid-20th century heyday, known for unbeatable Manhattan views and live music.
6 The hotel entrance in 1958.
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6 The hotel was known as the Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn.
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6 The hotel lobby, pictured in 2008.
Dylan Wilson
The Jehovah's Witnesses took over the building in 1983, and their restoration efforts on the building were widely praised, Curbed reported. The group sold the building to Bossert and Chetrit in 2012 amid a massive property selloff when they left Brooklyn for upstate New York.
A 2019 New York Magazine story chronicled the experiences of the former hotel's five remaining rent-stabilized residents still living in the near-vacant building.
Now, the grand 116-year-old hotel plans to welcome residents in one of Brooklyn's most in-demand areas.
6 Brooklyn Heights' hot real estate market makes the hotel's residential future especially enticing.
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The Hotel Bossert's new owners, SomeraRoad, boast a track record of adaptive reuse projects — the firm gained attention for its successful restoration of the former India House building at One Hanover Square in 2023. Its founder, Ian Ross, is a Brooklyn resident.
'SomeraRoad plans to honor the property's rich history and restore and reopen the building as residences,' the company wrote in a statement.
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