186-Remsen-Street-Brooklyn-032708.jpgDespite its prime location, 186 Remsen Street in Brooklyn Heights has been available for lease since its last tenant, an adoption agency, moved out more than five years ago. Locals say it’s because “the building is a wreck” and is priced too high. Robert Oliver of the Joseph P. Day Realty Corporation said owner Larry Wohl is looking to lease the 35,000-square-foot, late-19th-Century building to a single tenant for $1 million annually. At $28 per square foot, that would place the building in the Class B market if it were well-maintained, but people who have been inside called it “raw space” and “garbage-looking.” One real estate insider said 35,000 square feet is “stretching it,” and that “the economics for renting it as office is very bad.” Indeed, Property Shark said the building is 25,000 square feet.

The insider said neighboring St. Francis College unsuccessfully offered to buy the building. And another Heights resident thinks the building would be an ideal annex for P.S. 8, which recently cut its Pre-K program and is still overflowing with students. New condo development nearby such as One Brooklyn Bridge Park would only increase demand on the school, the worst-case scenario being trailers in the playground, said the resident. But the insider doubted bringing the building up to the strict elementary school code standards would be economically feasible at Day’s price.
The Franklin Building [An Architectural Guidebook to Brooklyn]
186 Remsen Street [Joseph P. Day] GMAP


What's Your Take? Leave a Comment

  1. why would the board of education want to buy, or worse lease, such a POS? People in brownston Brooklyn are in la-la land half the time, they are either so rich or so out of the mainstream that they don’t even know when they are talking nonsense.
    The very last thing the Board of Ed will want to do is build a new middle school in the area, there are plenty of midle schools already in surrounding areas. the public schools here are nowhere near as crowded as in distrcits in Queens and other more affodable parts of Brooklyn, this is richie-rich-burg. Most parents send their kids to private schools and even those who swear they won’t will end up being transferred by their firms to Dubai so forget it. Brooklyn Heights is not a real place it is money land and nobody in moneyland appreciates anything that is free.

  2. 2:28/3:08, no problem. I enjoy interesting discussions and courteous debate. It’s an important issue. You (and 2:55) should consider signing in. It’s always nice to attribute meaningful comments to people, even if they use a pseudonym.

  3. 2:28 here

    scholarship, baby. there aren’t a whole lot of them, but private schools do offer them based on need if the student demonstrates they are up to the academic challenge. i wound up owing them a small amount, but nothing compared to the actual cost, and i was more than happy to pay it.

    Biff thanks for the info, like i said i was just trying to clarify what 1:15 was getting at. this aint my fight so i dont have too much invested in the argument – just trying to keep things moving along.