More of a theoretical question here… if you owned a lot in Brooklyn, how much do you think it would cost to build a brand new Brownstone with modern construction techniques and classic styling?


Comments

  1. If it’s at all helpful to hear this estimate, we have insurance with Chubb and their practice is to estimate what it would cost to recreate our house exactly, not just build any ole house in its place and they estimated $1.3 million to recreate our 2-story with English basement limestone house. We have decorative wood parquet floors throughout, a decent amount of woodwork but not the kind that is excessively detailed. Only one fireplace.

  2. Real brownstone is almost never used. It is still quarried but is very expensive. There was a house on the Prospect Heights 2007 house tour whose facade had been restored using using real brownstone (Prospect Pl btw Carlton and Vanderbilt). It’s quite different — and very beautiful — compared to the bog standard refaced facades done in tinted concrete. Too bad since refacing with concrete is so very expensive, but I think that’s largely a factor of the labor involved rather than the materials. FWIW, since the economy started tanking I’ve noticed prices going down on facades jobs.

  3. Thanks for all of your comments. Your estimates came pretty close to this online estimator I tried:

    http://www.building-cost.net/CornersType.asp

    Labor: $518,447
    Material: $716,573
    Equipment: $20,034
    TOTAL: $1,255,054 (not including land)

    For classic styling, I was hoping for tin ceilings, nice doors and moldings, and the classic facade. When people get their building re-faced is any of that actually brownstone or just concrete painted brown? I’ve seen some bad work on the stoops and faces of buildings that have been redone.

  4. I’m working on a couple of new buildings that are more modern versions of row houses and the numbers I’m getting from contractors are typically around $200/sf. Obviously the details are very different, and we’re putting in a lot more sustainable features, but they’re not nearly as ornate or as labor intensive as a typical brownstone. I’d expect new construction brownstones to start at $225 a foot, depending upon the level of detail.

    Jim Hill
    Urban Pioneering Architecture

  5. i dont think single family brownstones would have to be ada compliant…

    As far as costs, it depends on whether you want the exact same specs as an original brownstone or whether modern equivalents would be ok.

    I’d love to hear about people’s thoughts on “acceptable” facades.

  6. A new brownstone would not have the required handicap access. There are work-arounds for this, like the curved metal track lifts you sometimes see, but approval for a present day brownstone would be a problem.

  7. Not sure where the shock is coming from – people have been paying “half a mil per floor” and more for renovated brownstones in recent years. I haven’t seen mention of butlers in those listings, but may have missed it.

    Again, I think $500 / SF is about right if you are getting into recreating brownstone historical plaster details, flooring, exterior details, and doing everything high end. 8-900K is probably achievable, but it’s not going to look like a “classic” brownstone inside. 900K to $2million seems like a reasonable range, lacking specifics. Obviously there is no upper limit.

    I can’t comment on what expense is “justifiable” – that’s pretty much up to whoever’s doing the building and where they’re doing it.

  8. I’m sorry, squaredrive, but why would you want central air in a new construction? It’s so inefficient and takes up a lot of room.
    Also, $500/SF+ ???!!! That’s half a mil per floor! That kind of expense is not at all justified unless your brownstone is in the prime area of brooklyn heights or Upper West Side. If you’re spending upwards of 500/SF you better get a maid and a butler, while you’re at it.

1 2