Co-op of the Day: 62 Montague Street
A sponsor unit at 62 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights has just hit the market. The 1,350-square-foot apartment has three bedrooms, two baths, a dining room and an eat-in kitchen. The sponsor has clearly just redone the kitchen and bathrooms—not particularly well, but not offensively either. While the listing wins big points for architecture and…
A sponsor unit at 62 Montague Street in Brooklyn Heights has just hit the market. The 1,350-square-foot apartment has three bedrooms, two baths, a dining room and an eat-in kitchen. The sponsor has clearly just redone the kitchen and bathrooms—not particularly well, but not offensively either. While the listing wins big points for architecture and location (steps to the promenade), some folks won’t be thrilled with the fact that it’s on the ground-floor on the street side. For $1,425,000, think that’ll be a sticking point?
62 Montague Street [Squarespace] GMAP
62 Montague Street [NY Times]
I have no desire to live in a doorman/elevator building. None at all.
It’s not about being snobby or not snobby, it’s about personal preference.
Like most things on this site that people make to sound like they are the gospel of the lord because they said it.
4:15
I want you to take a tape measure and measure any 1200 square foot apartment on the market today and see what you actually get. Usually it about 900 square feet but it could be as little as 800 square feet. In a large building where you don’t have the actual legal dimensions of the lot, anything goes. really.
There are co-ops and there are co-ops. In a doorman building this maintenance is about normal. In a top floor walk up of a former brownstone convereted to an SRO converted to co-op, you will pay less. But there is no comparison between living in a walkup and living in a luxury building. Hate to be a snob but the world is full of complex comparisons apart from the simplistic sq. ft, Brooklyn/Manhattan comparisons. Also this is Brooklyn Heights which has at times been pricier than Manhattan, and why not? it is nicer.
3:24, not sure what you mean. 10 by 10 equals 100 SQF, plain and simple. An apartment footprint of 20 x 50 roughly equals 1000 SQF. This building has a footprint and each floor minus the common area hallway and any mechanical shafts, occupies so much suqare footage. There is nothing wrong with using that to determine cost. How would you price a studio then? Why would prices be different for different 1 bedroom units in the same building? Because they have different square footage. Your argument doesn’t make sense. Room counts mean shit unless you are trying to pack in as amny people as possible. If we priced by room counts, everyone would be living in shoe boxes. 1350 SQF at 1.425M equals $ 1055 per sqf no matter how many rooms you have.
Getting back to the maintenance, from what I’ve seen, Brooklyn rates seem to be about 2/3 of those in Manhattan. I don’t know why, but that’s just what I’ve seen. So this mant is in line for Manhattan, but high for Brooklyn.
3:19 I agree with you, and to further support your point, even most townhouses in BH are not getting $1000psf. There are a few outliers above that price, but the average is below.
I wish people would not use square foot costs. They are meaningless. You can make up almost any square footage you want to for an apartment. There are no consitent industry standards as to what constitutes a square foot. Therefore as a measurement, it is meaningless. I have been to 1200 sq foot apartment that are much smaller than 1100 square foot apartments. It is trickery plain and simple.
You have to see the apartment and judge the size for yourself. Square footage costs are completely misleading. One broker’s square foot is not the same as another broker’s. It is the dirty secret of the industry.
Room counts are a better way to go. Visit the apartment and see how big the rooms are. Forget square feet.
2:14 here – I have no idea whether the sales anecdotes you point out are accurate (and I am not going to search to find out). The fact remains that $1000/sq foot is NOT the AVERAGE for high-end, well renovated co-ops in Brooklyn Heights. But regardless, if you are a determined buyer today only two points are relevant:
1) Is $1000/sq foot the price I HAVE to pay to get a nice co-op in BH? Or, put another way, what can I get for less?
2) Is this PARTICULAR apartment worth $1000/square foot?
I think the answers to both questions weigh heavily against this or any other co-op currently listed actually selling for more than $1000/square foot, especially in an uncertain market.
Townhouses in BH, Cobble Hill, and PS and some condos (like OPP) can get that price, but I maintain that most co-ops can’t. If they could, Corcoran, Elliman, BHS, etc would not be putting high-end co-ops in those neighborhoods on the market at well below $1000/square foot.
Also, the 2800sf on Joralemon was recently dropped from $2.45 to $2.3 to $2.0M. It’s still not moving. It’s a nice place, too, and lower PSF maintenance than here.