Sale of Brownstone Mansion on Brooklyn Heights Promenade Sets Borough Record at $25.5 Million

On Christmas Eve, a pricey brownstone in Brooklyn Heights set a new sales record for the borough.

Property records show that a five-story mansion located at 8 Montague Terrace and overlooking the Brooklyn Heights Promenade sold for $25.5 million on December 24. That’s $5.199 million above the previous record, set in April, for a penthouse condo at Brooklyn Bridge Park’s Quay Tower. The Real Deal was the first to report the off-market sale.

Before that, the record was $16,745,121, rumored to be paid by Matt Damon and his wife Lucianna Barroso for a penthouse condo in The Standish, also in Brooklyn Heights at 171 Columbia Heights, in 2018.

Historic records indicate the brownstone dates to the early 1870s, with the Edwin S. and Martica Waterman family in residence by 1873. While the family left Brooklyn they held onto the house until 1917. Like many large houses in the neighborhood, it was divided up into a multiple dwelling in the 20th century with a 1933 certificate of occupancy showing a conversion to eight apartments.

The previous owners, Vincent and Theresa Viola, purchased the home for $8 million in 2007. Vincent, the founder and chairman emeritus of Virtu Financial, is also the owner of the Florida Panthers hockey team. They converted the property back into a single-family and the project included Landmarks approved work on the iron tea porch that faces the Promenade. A final certificate of occupancy for the conversion was issued last month. The new owner, according to documents, is a limited partnership called M8T.

Virtu said Monday it is shrinking its Manhattan headquarters and opening offices elsewhere because workers want a “better quality of life” and don’t want to take public transit, Bloomberg reported.

Brooklyn has been less affected by the drop in real estate activity than other boroughs as buyers flock here for low-rise living with plenty of green space. While the number of sales were down in Brooklyn in 2020 by 24 percent vs. the prior year — less of a fall than other boroughs experienced — the median price of closed sales rose 4 percent in 2020, according to PropertyShark.

Related Stories

• Brooklyn Bridge Park $20.301 Million Penthouse Condo Sale Sets New Borough Record
• Did Matt Damon Break Record With Penthouse Purchase in The Standish in Brooklyn Heights?
• Brooklyn Sales Record Finally Beat by $15.5 Million Cobble Hill Town House

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