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October 23, 2007
House of the Day: 299 Clermont Avenue
The four-story brownstone at 299 Clermont Avenue in Fort Greene just hit the market at an asking price of $1,899,000. While there's only one interior photo in the listing, the verbiage says that there's plenty of original details. The house is currently configured as four floor-through rentals. Only one is vacant but the other three leases are expiring within the next 12 months. If all this is true, the asking price is probably pretty close to the mark. What do you think?
299 Clermont Avenue [Brenton Realty] GMAP P*Shark
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Comments
This was on the market in the winter/spring with flateu realty. Not sure what price. It was HOD if I recall.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 1:42 PM
L U S H L E S H ! ! !
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 1:46 PM
Meh.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 2:34 PM
If Brenton Realty has the listing it surly has to be a flip. There's always a catch with them.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 2:59 PM
Well yes, an LLC bought it in 2006. Selling only a year later.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 3:03 PM
Nineteenth century writers railed against the monotony of the brownstone streets in NYC.
Here is yet another multi-million-dollar brownstone palace, in some undistinguishable block, interchangeable with a hundred other blocks containing thousands of cookie-cutter brown rowhouses.
I'm so over it. These houses are monotonous.
I'm logging off due to ARCHITECTURAL ENNUI.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 3:18 PM
Perfect timing 3:18! On my lunch break today, I read the following quote from an 1899 Architectural Record article by a Montgomery Schuyler, printed in Lockwood's book (p. CP 57):
"This nefarious structure [the brownstone house]... became epidemic...between 1850-1880...from Fourteenth Street to Fifty-Ninth Street it raged and prevailed.
The ordinary brown-stone front was thus a series of pretentious shams, and with these shams miles of the streets of New York were and are composed. To live in and among them, to become inured to them, was to suffer a depravation of taste the more pitiable for being unconscious. The brown-stone front was enough to vulgarize a whole population, and in our case it case near succeeding."
I do love brownstones, though.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 3:43 PM
Caveat: just because leases "expire" doesn't mean the units are not rent stabilized or similar. Rent stabilized leases expire, and the landlord has to renew them under law.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 3:56 PM
Yeah who knows maybe in a hundred years all those Fedders buildings will be in vogue!
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 4:10 PM
4:10PM I was just thinking the same thing!
Human nature being what it is, you're probably correct! :)
Posted by: bren at October 23, 2007 4:56 PM
I highly doubt those things will be standing in 100 years.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 5:22 PM
i think this about brownstones ALL THE TIME. i do not understand the obsession. do love brooklyn, so I read this site.
brownstones seem old fashioned, dark, dreary, over bearing and boring.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 5:27 PM
That room with the tv looks awfully tight.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 6:12 PM
"brownstones seem old fashioned, dark, dreary, over bearing and boring"
Dark - yeah maybe but that all depends on you choice of paint color, window treatments, choice of lighting, etc. Any residence can be dark.
Dreary - that all depends on your lifestyle and your friends
Over Bearing - yes, to someone who is not apt to doing a little work now and then.
Boring? - have you ever been in a brownstone?
Even the run-dwon still have more detail and character than the pieces of shit being built today. and before you answer, I'm an architect and I see a lot of shit out there. You'd be hard pressed to find anything that comes close to the inherent character of brownstones. Oh, did i mention i own and live in one.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 6:17 PM
Playa haters all.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 7:53 PM
beach haters?
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 8:02 PM
I thought brownstones were really cool when they were cheap and kind of Bohemian.
Yeah, they creaked and were lopsided and had bathrooms only upstairs, but they were fun and not middle-class-american. They were funky for young people to set up their futons or for young marrieds to set up anti-suburban households, but now, these places are like bourgeoise palaces. appliances are german, decor is minimalist, housekeeping is immaculate. It is more Stepford wifes than Stepford. Brownstones have unfortunately fallen victim to the New York real estate happiness killer. Forget them. they were cool once but now they are pure desperate housewives.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 8:15 PM
Oh My- I never knew I was so bourgeoisie. Just bought a brownstone a few blocks away. I'm from San Francisco and I was smitten with the charm and detail of the buildings not to mention the lovely symetry and scale of the streets. They are far from dark and dreary- interiors are filled with light and volume.
Perhaps readers prefer pink asbestos siding on "mid century modern" structures or 60's pebble stucco finishes w/ aluminum windows. In California we can stick plastic pink flamingos on the lawn. When you see so much non-architecture as we have here, you can appreciate the craftsmanship and thoughtfulness of these buildings.
I'm confused- if you don't like brownstones, why read the blog? I know a really good blog about cupcakes that might be more appealing.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 8:39 PM
Mmmm. Cupcakes.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 9:06 PM
8:15, you just described maybe 20% of brownstone owners.
shows your complete ignorance.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 10:44 PM
Cool--whatever makes brownstone houses in NYC less desirable is fine by me. That way there'll be more and better priced homes for the rest of us.
Posted by: guest at October 23, 2007 10:57 PM
Edith Wharton did remark that brownstone was "the ugliest stone ever quarried." If I recall correctly, she preferred limestone. I'm a brick and terra cotta fan myself. But when you think about everything that's been built SINCE the brownstone era, brownstone is lookin' pretty good!
Posted by: guest at October 24, 2007 8:48 AM
The people reacting to brownstones in the articles quoted above were from the victorian era, a time marked by grandiose art and architecture and general fussiness and repression. The brownstone was an elegant, functional and humble structure compared to what was en vogue at the time. Have you seen where Edith Wharton lived?? http://www.edithwharton.org
Posted by: guest at October 24, 2007 10:08 AM
Hi Everyone.
I am the guy the selling the 299 Clermont for the owner. It is pretty cool house, I would love it everyone that commented came down to see the place. It is not rent stablized, it is not a flip. The owner has had it since 2000. Feel free to contact me
Posted by: guest at October 29, 2007 6:06 PM
we are the couple who just purchased the house.
it is a fantastic house and is definitely not a flip.
just needs some tlc, but the bones and mechanicals are very good.
the seller took good care of the building, and indeed has had it since 2000.
the house is light and airy, not dark and dreary.
elegant, functional and humble (10:08)
we love the neighborhood.
Posted by: oldbaby at February 18, 2008 1:31 AM
Welcome to the neighbourhood. I think you got a good buy in a lovely street in a lovely area.
Posted by: guest at March 3, 2008 8:36 PM
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