Real Estate

Large One-Bedroom With Mantel, Details in Greenpoint Near India Street Ferry Asks $2,800

Housed on the top floor of a Second Empire townhouse with curb appeal, the unit has five rooms and a fair amount of original detail, including a marble mantel.

by Stephen Zacks

05/02/2019 0

This floor-through apartment at 99 India Street in Greenpoint looks out from the mansard level above the cornice, but it’s no servant’s quarters. Set up railroad style and housed on the top floor of a charming Second Empire townhouse, it has five rooms and a fair amount of original detail, including a marble mantel.

It’s located a block and a half from the Greenpoint Historic District in a mid-to-late 19th century four-story, three-unit brick row house with Italianate features. The keystones on the rounded, bracketed doorway, parlor-level bay, and the second-floor windows match the living room’s arched marble mantel.

There’s a fair amount of hedging between current and past listings on how many people can fit into what is basically a one-bedroom or, technically, a three-bedroom railroad. Consisting of five rooms plus a bathroom, it would make a roomy spread for a single person who works at home and needs an office. It could also work for a couple, a small family or a pair of roommates who aren’t too particular about privacy.

Photos show it’s currently set up with a living room in front, a bedroom (with an unmade bed) in a small room on the side in the front, an office with a window in the middle room, a dining room with a closet and niches for storage and shelves in the rear, a bathroom to the side in the rear, and the kitchen in a rear extension.

Thus at least one room seems exploitable as a second bedroom with the addition of an improvised door, but with wide openings between rooms, construction may be needed for anything more than a curtain.

In a previous listing you can glimpse a cute 1930s-era bathroom with aqua green tile and white Art Deco fixtures.

The galley-style kitchen is luxurious for a rental, although not particularly au courant, with a speckled stone counter, brown and tan tile backsplash, dark stained cabinets, and stainless steel appliances.

Most of the rooms have parquet floors with inlaid borders and original details such as as moldings and doors. There appear to be two ceiling fans and one or two closets, including “a huge walk-in closet,” according to the listing.

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The location is in an increasingly coveted section of Greenpoint between Franklin and Manhattan Avenue, not far from the water taxi at the India Street pier and the G train as Greenpoint Avenue, but StreetEasy indicates the asking rent has dropped from $3,000 last year and $2,900 the year before. Possibly the owner is trying to keep a tenant for longer than a year this time — perhaps there’s room to negotiate for an apartment that is after all really a one-bedroom and only two blocks from the biggest sewage treatment plant in New York City.

There’s an open house by appointment only on Saturday from noon to 12:30 pm. Anastasia Ames of Citi Habitats is the agent, and the listed rent is $2,800. Is this a good deal for Greenpoint?

[Listing: 99 India Street | Broker: Citi Habitats] GMAP