House of the Day: Five Stories on Lefferts Place
A reader flagged this classic brownstone for us–and with good reason. The five-story house has wonderful details on the inside as well as out. We’re loving the mansard roof and original iron fence that encloses what looks to be a fairly large front yard with set-back stoop. Despite being outside of the Clinton Hill Historic…
A reader flagged this classic brownstone for us–and with good reason. The five-story house has wonderful details on the inside as well as out. We’re loving the mansard roof and original iron fence that encloses what looks to be a fairly large front yard with set-back stoop. Despite being outside of the Clinton Hill Historic District, this block is extremely well maintained, particularly on the northern side of the street. Given that four-story houses in the area tend to go for between $1.35 million and $1.45 million, this feels very solidly priced to us. (Full disclosure: We own a very similar 5-story house only a couple of blocks away.)
Lefferts Place [Corcoran] GMAP
THE LISTING WILL NOT BE PULLED. THIS MAN IS CASHING OUT PRECISELY BECAUSE HE KNOWS THAT NOW IS THE TIME TO SELL. HE’LL PROBABLY MOVE TO MANHATTAN.
kmarmen- thanks for the update on the house. I’m glad that the person who did buy it was able to put $$ into it to make it so lovely (as the photos show). I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t a touch envious but at the time we didn’t have the resources that the house both needed and deserved. The irony of it all is that after our contract fell through at the closing, we ultimately bought a 3-family house in Wchster and pine regularly for Brooklyn…which is why I’m now hooked on this blog….
Babs, the point of Anon 6.31am is that we are not talking about Prospect Lefferts Garden, but about Lefferts Place in Clinton Hill. Different street and location entirely.
Babs, we’re not talking about PLG. We’re talking about Lefferts Place in Clinton Hill, not Lefferts Avenue in PLG.
Sorry to be so late in the game — this goes all the way back to Anon at 6:31 am — I live on Lefferts Ave. in PLG between Nostrand and Rogers — there is no housing project here — it’s a block of two story limestone houses in the PLG historic district. The only housing project around is the Ebbets Field Houses on the other side of Empire Blvd. There may be some city-owned buildings on Lefferts Ave by Rogers (not sure), but they are two and three family townhouses just like the rest of the block.
The block between Nostrand and NY Aves is mostly apartment buildings; not too nice, but not projects. On the south side of the street there are some new ugly Fedders-type townhouses and on NY Ave between Lefferts and Sterling is a new building that seems to be unoccupied – it’s actually not too bad looking, with little ironwork balconies and nice windows — keep meaning to check it out on PShark and always forget to do so! Construction at the lot on the NW corner of Lefferts and NY — haven’t been by in a while, not expecting too much by way of aesthetics.
I can’t believe that this house is actually on the market! I know the owner. He’s a wall street trader at a major bulge bracket investment banking firm (I think his tenants are bankers too). To his credit, the guy put a fortune into the house, I guess part of it went to addressing some of the violations previously cited and restoring the home to its former glory.
In my opinion, he did a great job. The front and vestibule doors are not original, as is most of the iron work at the front of the property (gate and fence) and on the roof. The front garden and lamp post were equally non-existent. And if my memory serves me correctly, those gorgeous newel post use to brick columns – aghast! Inside he installed new kitchens and baths in all of the units and new hardwood floors since the developer did such a shoddy job. He also bought and installed a lovely pier mirror and new fireplaces since the prior developer stripped the building of most of its architectural details. From what I understand, the restoration process was long, arduous and involved various artisans adept at wood, mason and iron work. Most likely it’s still a work in progress. Nonetheless, kudos to him! I hope he gets his price! However, my suspicion tells me that he’s just kicking tires and the house is really not on the market. The owner vowed that he would never sell and I can’t imagine him selling this property when it’s already cash flow positive (owner occupied) and he doesn’t need the money. Prediction? He pulls the listing. In five years he’ll get $500k more for the building. In view of the Ratner project and the extensive downtown development slated for the next few years, I know I wouldn’t sell.
My husband and I were in contract to buy that house (if it is as I suspect 121 Lefferts Pl) back in 2001. A developer had bought it and renovated it (we were in contract while it was being renovated) and did a very shoddy job of it. Reading some of the comments really brought back the 9 months of stress we went through for a house that we ultimately did not buy. The floors were not level and there were gaps between the flooring and the walls. One day near our closing date, my husband went to see the house, noticed a bedroom light was on and then realized that no light switch had been installed for that light! And having to go through a very tight half-bath to get to the bedrooms downstairs!
The house did have a ton of potential and our engineer was absolutely in love with its “bones.” But at the closing, it came out that there was a boat-load of environmental violations (like tickets received for fairly minor violations) associated with the developer (not just having to do with this property). Our lawyer and the title insurance lawyer explained that those fines could fall on us at some point in the future and that the fines can add up to quite a lot of money. The title insurance lawyer wasn’t willing to give a clean title unless the developer/seller was willing to put money in escrow to cover the fines. He was not willing to do so and we had to walk away. Judging from some of the comments above and from the price of the house, it seems that we did miss the boat on this one? We were a young couple with a young child and though we were a bit ill-at-ease about the nabe, we were willing to take a chance on it. We liked its diversity and the people on the blockk seemed friendly enough (this is NY after all). The “hotel” on the corner (ony two doors from this house) did give me the heebie-jeebies and the nearest subway station was closed at the time, so transportation really was an issue, particularly if, like me, one has to be in the office by 7:15 am.
The biggest issue was really the violations and that the seller wasnt willing to escrow the money. Naturally, it made us even more skeptical of everything the seller had told us that. And not for nothing, a Ft Greene realtor told us later that she had seen that house in the very early stages of renovation and thought there was some truly “questionable” stuff there that would have cost us down the line.
Hi- Live on the block (there are no projects on or near the block) and I am a real estate agent. Saw this house 6 years ago (there was a biding war on it back then too). It’s a great house. The onwers did nice work to it too.
I have a developer friend that looked at that lot as well. As I got the story- 1st white castle has an easement on the lot and 2nd it is actually 2 lots and the owner of the second half is not available. Other then those title issues.. it is a great site to develop.
I kind of like Fulton.. Met Food, Outpost.. about 4-5 restaurants and cafes.. dry cleaners, great nail salons, friendly deli people, a hardware store, a wine shop, a flower shop (though I wish that flower shop actually ever had some flowers) and a post office.. Many of the stores on Fulton are being renovated and turning.. next year there will be 5 new stores.. and we’ll all have to travel to 5th Ave to find a dollar stoor.
a friend who is a developer and one very familiar with the area just informed me that some of the buildings on lefferts place that are being referred to as projects are actually co-op buildings. being the perennial cynic that i am, i just did a search of the block between grand and classon avenues on property shark and indeed the two very large buildings in the center of the block are indeed co-operatives! as you can imagine, these buildings will quickly turnover. thus the reason why developers are clamoring to purchase the large empty lot down the street. the owner of the listing would be a fool to sell now! http://www.pshark.com/mason/Reports/showsection.html?propkey=180157