The Hotel Bossert becomes Brooklyn's first Ritz-Carlton branded residences

The Hotel Bossert, vacant in Brooklyn Heights for more than a decade, is being converted into the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Brooklyn Heights, the brand's first residential project in the borough. The landmarked 14-storey Renaissance Revival building at 98 Montague Street will become a 61-unit condominium, according to currently available public plans.

SomeraRoad, the New York and Nashville developer founded by Brooklyn Heights local Ian Ross, bought the property for $100 million in 2025. It is partnering with Marriott International to deliver the residences, which will be primarily three and four bedroom homes rather than the studios and one bedrooms common to condo conversions.

The New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission has unanimously approved revised plans for rooftop additions and other exterior work, after previously sending the proposal back for changes. Because the Bossert is within the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, any alteration to its exterior requires the commission's sign off before work can proceed.

Construction is expected to begin later this year, with completion slated for 2029. Several details remain undisclosed, including square footage, pricing and the interior design team, leaving prospective buyers to judge the project on its address and its history rather than its finishes for now.

Union Square Hospitality Group, the restaurant company founded by Danny Meyer, will open its first full service Brooklyn outpost on the ground floor, in roughly 3,200 square feet fronting Montague Street. Sales and marketing are being handled by SERHANT. New Development, led by Ravi Kantha and the Kantha team.

A landmark once called Brooklyn's Waldorf-Astoria

The Bossert opened in 1909, designed by the New York firm Helmle & Huberty, and quickly became one of Brooklyn's best-known hotels. It was nicknamed the Waldorf-Astoria of Brooklyn, hosted celebrities and business leaders, and famously staged the Brooklyn Dodgers' 1955 World Series celebration.

Its exterior is being restored as part of the conversion: a geometric brick facade, a sculpted granite and limestone base, an ornate terra cotta cornice, arched windows, cast iron railings and lion's head keystones. The Jehovah's Witnesses bought the building in 1988 and used it until 2012, when they sold it as they left Brooklyn Heights.

What Ritz-Carlton is known for elsewhere

Ritz-Carlton residents will get a 24 hour attended lobby, dedicated residential services and amenities geared toward wellness, leisure and entertaining, alongside access to Marriott's Residence Owner Recognition Program, ONVIA. That template echoes the brand's hotels, from the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi's Grand Canal setting to the Ritz Carlton Dorado Beach's oceanfront suites and Spa Botánico.

We have covered that consistency before. Our coverage of the Ritz-Carlton Abu Dhabi found a resort built around Venetian inspired architecture, mosque views and marble baths, and our visit to the Ritz Carlton Dorado Beach, a Ritz-Carlton Reserve on Puerto Rico's north coast, found oceanfront suites paired with golf and refined dining.

Those are hotel stays rather than branded homes, but they show the standard the Brooklyn Heights project is being built to match. The Bossert conversion is notable for putting that consistency inside a landmark the brand did not build, rather than a purpose built resort of its own design.

The brand's dining record extends beyond its resorts. Culina, the all day restaurant at The Nile Ritz-Carlton in Cairo, is best known for a Friday brunch running from 1pm to 5pm, with falafel, fried broad beans, fresh guava juice and cocktails alongside the food.

Brooklyn Heights will get its own version of that pairing, though the operator is Union Square Hospitality Group rather than the brand's in-house dining team, and the address is a landmark rather than a purpose built hotel. That distinction is part of what makes this project unusual for Ritz-Carlton.

The Bossert has sat empty through several failed attempts to reopen it as a hotel since the Jehovah's Witnesses' departure in 2012, with redevelopment efforts repeatedly stalling. SomeraRoad's 2025 purchase and its partnership with Marriott is the first plan in over a decade to have cleared the preservation commission.

The Landmarks Preservation Commission's approval of the exterior work removes the last major regulatory obstacle standing between the vacant landmark and its new life as branded condominiums.

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Image: The Ritz-Carlton