The Watchtower Bible and Tract Society announced plans to build an enormous audio-visual production center on land partly in Tuxedo but mostly in Ramapo.
Members of the nonprofit group, better known as the Jehovah’s Witnesses, plan to use the building to consolidate and expand various multi-media production offices, which they say make materials about living a principled life.
The new 1.5 million-square-foot facility would be almost as big as the Jehovah’s Witnesses’ 1.6-million-square-foot headquarters, located two miles away in the Town of Warwick. As in Warwick, roughly 1,000 volunteers would live and staff the Ramapo media production center.
Besides studio space, the complex would include offices, residences, underground parking, a fitness area and a visitor center for the public.
The 155 Sterling Mine Road property consists of 242 acres in Ramapo and seven acres in the Town of Tuxedo. The project is currently in the environmental review phase following a July application submission to the Town of Ramapo Planning Board.
Robert Zick, a Jehovah’s Witnesses spokesman, estimated it could take two years for the group to finish planning the project and up to another four to build the complex.
