(RNS) — The Jehovah’s Witnesses have purchased a former IBM office and data center on property near its world headquarters in New York’s Hudson Valley region, the faith group recently announced.
A spokesman for the Witnesses said that the property, once used by the IBM Corporation, is part of an expansion of facilities in that area.
“About six months ago an opportunity became available to purchase a property adjacent to our World Headquarters in Warwick, New York, and we felt it was worth pursuing,” Jason Hohl, spokesman for the Jehovah’s Witnesses in the United States, told Religion News Service in a statement. “Its proximity to our existing facilities made it particularly appealing and gives us added flexibility for our organizational needs, such as office space, dining facilities etc.”
Its corporation, Watchtower Bible and Tract Society of New York Inc., purchased the site from Kyndryl Inc., an information technology company, on June 26.
The religious group is currently building a new media center for audio and video production about biblical teachings in nearby Ramapo, New York, on land that was bought in 2009.
Members of the faith, which emerged in the 1870s and is known for door-to-door distribution of religious pamphlets, believe in God, whom they call Jehovah, but not in the Trinity.
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The 433,000-square-foot facilities, called the Sterling Forest Business Resiliency Services Center, are located next to the Witnesses’ headquarters that opened in 2016 after the religious group moved its headquarters from Brooklyn, New York. The Witnesses said at the time that the move was due in part to the expense of operations in the previou …