In 2025, the famed Brooklyn Heights hotel was purchased by a development company with a local owner for $100 million.
The Hotel Bossert at 98 Montague Street in June 2025. Photo by Susan De Vries
After a long uncertain future, a new owner is moving ahead with plans to convert the famed Hotel Bossert in Brooklyn Heights into a condo building, with completion slated for 2028.
On Friday, workers were busy at the building, which is surrounded by a heavy duty construction shed, and small dumpsters lined Montague Street. They were filled with chunks of drywall and other debris, perhaps from partition removal.
City records show there have been a number of minor permits applied for and issued this year for work at the early 20th century hotel at 98 Montague Street, including for interior demolition, boilers, sidewalk sheds, scaffolding, wiring, and lighting. As of yet, though, no application has been filed for a change of occupancy for the building, currently classified as a hotel or dorm with 284 units. Once the project finishes, an offering plan shows, the building will have 61 residential condos and commercial space.
Dumpsters along Montague Street this month. Photo by Susan De Vries
Development firm SomeraRoad, which was founded by Brooklyn Heights local Ian Ross, purchased the hotel in May 2025 for $100 million, city records show. Ross, who is also the managing principal, told Brownstoner in a statement that completion of the conversion project is targeted for 2028.
He said the development team is in “the midst of an incredibly thoughtful and intentional restoration focused on preservation rather than reinvention, honoring the building’s historic character while thoughtfully adapting it for exceptional residential living in one of New York City’s most coveted neighborhoods.” Once completed, the former hotel will include luxury residences and a ground-floor restaurant from restaurateur Danny Meyer and Union Square Hospitality Group, he added.
“As a Brooklyn Heights resident, I watched the building sit dormant for nearly 13 years alongside so many of my neighbors, wondering why such an extraordinary property could no longer serve as an active part of the community,” he said. When the chance to buy the building arose, he saw it as an opportunity to “bring one of the neighborhood’s most cherished landmarks back to life.”
The sidewalk shed along Remsen Street this month. Photo by Susan De Vries
According to permits and a recent presentation to the city’s Landmarks Preservation Commission, SLCE Architects is working on the designs for the project. At the June 23 LPC hearing, a rep from SLCE Architects and Ward Dennis of Higgins Quasebarth & Partners presented plans to “construct rooftop and courtyard additions and install rooftop mechanical equipment, and install a new window assembly in a blind opening” at the landmarked building.
The plans called for rebuilding the 13th floor with a straight vertical wall, extending and reconfiguring the 14th floor, adding a 15th floor for apartments and mechanicals, infilling a center light court with new balconies, and opening a historic blind arch at Remsen Street to install a new window matching adjacent ones.
The proposed additions. Renderings by SLCE Architects via LPC
Mockups on the rooftop of Hotel Bossert this month. Photo by Susan De Vries
The commissioners declined to take a vote on the plans, with several saying the rooftop addition isn’t appropriate as designed and asked the team to work on the plans and come back. The 15th floor was called “too big and dominant,” “too visible,” and a number said it was too clearly not a part of the original building.
Commissioners also took issue with the glass balcony railings and called for clearer differentiation between old and new materials, among other things. The design team will work with LPC staff before returning to the commission with updated plans.
SomeraRoad took ownership of the historic Hotel Bossert after years of uncertainty about what would happen at the site. After missing payments and racking up hundreds of thousands of dollars in debt on the 117-year-old building — once touted to reopen as a luxury hotel — The Chetrit Group lost the building to foreclosure in 2024, city records show.
The existing and proposed elevations showing the additions. Rendering by SLCE Architects via LPC
According to Crain’s, lender Beach Point Capital, which owned the debt on the hotel, acquired the property at a foreclosure auction for just over $1.014 million. In May 2025, the lender flipped the iconic hotel to SomeraRoad for $100 million.
The entrance in November 2017. Photo by Susan De Vries
Built in 1909, the once busy social hub and hotel is a survivor from the neighborhood’s days as a destination spot in the early 20th century. Its rooftop restaurant — named the Marine Roof — became a famous hangout spot starting in the 1920s. When the Dodgers won the World Series in 1955, the team celebrated there. The hotel hit hard times before being bought in 1988 by the Jehovah’s Witnesses, which used it for housing.
The religious organization sold it to Bistricer and Chetrit for $81 million in 2012, who said they planned to renovate and open a boutique hotel. A few rent-regulated tenants lived in the building up until 2022, court filings related to the foreclosure show. Ross told Brownstoner that there are no longer any residents living in the building.
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