Co-ops of the Day: 135 Willow Street Triple-Shot
The 1950s co-op building at 135 Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights currently has three apartments on the market. There’s a 10th floor two-bedroom asking $795,000, a ninth-floor one-bedroom for $560,000 and a third-floor studio for $299,000. All three have open houses scheduled this weekend. How’s this building? We’ve never been inside. 135 Willow Street Listings…
The 1950s co-op building at 135 Willow Street in Brooklyn Heights currently has three apartments on the market. There’s a 10th floor two-bedroom asking $795,000, a ninth-floor one-bedroom for $560,000 and a third-floor studio for $299,000. All three have open houses scheduled this weekend. How’s this building? We’ve never been inside.
135 Willow Street Listings [StreetEasy] GMAP P*Shark
Interesting. Thanks sam. I’ve been wondering about that block for a long time, wondering (hoping) they didn’t destroy some gorgeous buildings (such as the one on the SW corner of Henry and Joralemon) to build those boxes. I would love to see some of those old photos.
Biff, I have seen vintage photos of the Joralemon/Henry corner where the ugly brick box is now. In the 1930’s it was an open lot with public tennis courts.
The municipal archives, in Manhattan, across from the muni building, has microfilm of the Great Depression era photos taken by the NYC tax department.
Brooklyn Heights did not look so hot then.
A lot of boarded up and abandoned houses beleve it or not.
sam, I’ve also wondered what the East side of Henry between Remsen and Joralemon looked like before the boxy apartments went up there. Any idea how to find out?
Berenice Abbott took beautiful photos of the old houses on Willow Street that were demolished to make way for this boring Truman-era pile.
High maintenance in many of the buildings in the area is due to: 1)They were converted by developers (from rentals or other uses) in the 80s and shareholders were left with big, exepensive mortgages. It takes time to work those down. 2) They are relativley small –not that many units over which to spread the costs of live-in super (required), porters, door or security staff. 3) Tax abatements, if there were any, have expired and coops pay more than single-family homes in terms of real estate tax burden.
I thought 1.25 is standard for non-doorman and 1.50 is for full-service.
Also, according to the little magazines I get as a board member of our building, most everyone is having to raise maintenance this year due to 7% tax hike (among other things) so if you’re looking these days ask if monthlies have been raised recently. If not, expect a hike shortly.
Maintenance on my co-op just went up this year due to the re-assessment of building values that happened in 2008, along with a J-51 abatement expiring. 23% increase! It’s still under $1/sf, but it’s a big jump.
Not that that explains why BH maintenance is more expensive than other areas of Brooklyn, but I’d be interested to know if the maintenance here or in other co-ops increased recently because of taxes.
Did everyone get big tax increases in 2008 or just co-ops?
It seems to me the rule of thumb for maintenance was $1psf ten years ago. Clearly, that number would increase over the years. Real estate taxes, water rates, heating costs, union (doorman, super, etc) salaries are all up double digits since the late 1990s. I’m not sure why people’s expectations haven’t changed. Shouldn’t routine maintenance run $1.25 psf now? Or more? Of course, some buildings will always be lower due to underlying mortgage or lack thereof.
The metrics on the maint/cc of co-ops in the Heights never makes sense; when are used to seeing $1-1.25 psf, $1.50 and up seems outrageous.
This has been touched on before here…one explaination/theory was so many of the buildings have bad financials. That doesn’t quite explain why it is pervasive. Anyone else want to take a stab at educating the Brownstoner masses?