1 Plaza Street West

A sixteen-story neo-Gothic tower in brick, with stone and terra-cotta trim, on a corner lot the plan describes as having no courts and only a ten-foot rear yard — the building fills its corner.

The plan's condition report describes a four-apartment floor — A, B, C and D lines — off one public hall served by the passenger elevator, with separate rear service landings and a service elevator that reaches every floor from the cellar to the penthouse. Construction is heavy prewar: 12-inch exterior walls of brick over terra-cotta block, terra-cotta block around the stairs and elevators, and two separate fireproof stairs. Apartments keep prewar detail — parquet floors, beamed ceilings and arched openings in some lines, per listing records.

Combinations are part of the building's history and its present. Building-department filings show a 2003 reconfiguration of 10A and 10B, a 2014 combination, and the 2026 permit to join 14C and 14D. The penthouse has been fully renovated under filings from 2017 through 2019.

The latest audited statements on file are for 2019. They show a corporation of about $1.17 million in revenue, with real estate taxes and payroll the largest expenses; union pension and welfare costs appear as their own line. Year-end 2019 cash was about $437,000, most of it in a capital-improvement reserve. The 2019 statements report no reserve study; ask management whether one has been done since.

The capital record is active and funded by assessment:

• 2016: a capital assessment of $46 per share, payable over 54 months through April 2021, to fund building-wide projects.
• 2019: a Local Law 11 façade assessment of about $32 per share over 24 months, which replaced a 2 percent capital assessment the board had started in January.
• Maintenance increases of 3 percent in 2019 and 5 percent in 2020.

The debt has turned over since the statements on file. The 2011 underlying mortgage ($2.1 million at 4.86 percent) and a 2014 $2 million credit-line mortgage both matured July 1, 2021. ACRIS shows the corporation refinancing that June into a $4,000,000 consolidated mortgage with a new lender. Its rate, amortization and maturity are not in any document on file, and they are the first things to request.

Mechanical and envelope work is documented in building-department records: a change from No. 6 to No. 4 heating oil in 2006; a new boiler with a dual-fuel gas/oil burner in 2014; a domestic water-system upgrade in 2015; façade programs in 2006, 2011, 2016 and 2019; and the new cellar laundry room and sprinkler work in 2021. The Cycle 9 façade report, filed in 2021, was rated safe. A heavy-duty sidewalk shed permit was issued in May 2026; ask what work it covers.

Subletting: One-year terms, renewal only below the six-apartment cap with no waiting list, a 15 percent maintenance surcharge and a $500 deposit, per the house rules of August 2001. The rules say the cap exists to protect the apartments' marketability and the corporation's finances — in practice, the owner-occupancy level lenders look for.

Dogs: Require board permission.

Floor coverings: 80 percent of floor area must be carpeted or rugged, excluding kitchens and bathrooms, under the proprietary lease — to be in place within two weeks of moving in.

Sublease default clause: Every sublease must allow the corporation to collect rent directly from the subtenant if the shareholder falls behind on maintenance.

The house rules on file date from 2001. They are the right starting point and the wrong finishing point. Get the current rules, the flip-tax rate and the financing ceiling from the managing agent.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2024): a median $1,023/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 1.9% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-01060-0008). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Get the 2021 mortgage terms. When the NCB loans matured, the corporation consolidated into $4.0 million of secured debt, against about $2.5 million owed at the end of 2019. Rate, amortization and maturity decide where maintenance goes next.

Ask whether assessments are still running. The 2016 capital assessment ran through April 2021 and the 2019 façade assessment through early 2021. Confirm that nothing new has replaced them, and what the May 2026 sidewalk shed is for.

Confirm the flip tax and the financing ceiling in writing. The statements show a flip tax is collected but not its rate; the 20 percent down figure comes only from listing records.

Know whose apartment you're buying. The seller may be an individual shareholder, the corporation (three rented apartments as of 2019) or a holder of unsold shares. Each affects the board process and the closing.

Budget for Landmarks. Window replacement and any exterior change need LPC approval since 2016.

Lead with the exposures and the floor. Four to a floor means few interior-facing rooms. Photograph the view from the actual windows and name the floor.

Correct the attribution. Sugarman & Berger, per the LPC. A listing that says Candela is easy for the buyer's attorney to disprove.

Have the refinancing answer ready. The 2021 consolidation is the first question on every attorney's list. Get the managing agent's summary of rate and maturity before you list.

Confirm the sublet position. With a six-apartment cap and a waiting list, a buyer who may need to sublet will ask how many sublets are active today.

If you're considering 1 Plaza Street West, also evaluate:

• 39 Plaza Street West — Rosario Candela's 1926 Berkeley Plaza Apartments a few doors north; the attended-elevator, smoke-free alternative on the same arc
• 50 Plaza Street East — the 1925 twelve-story cooperative on the eastern arc of the plaza
• 20 Plaza Street East — 1940 cooperative on the plaza; the later interwar alternative
• 10 Plaza Street East — the 1959 fifteen-story cooperative; postwar full service on the same circle
• 34 Plaza Street East — prewar cooperative on the Prospect Heights side of the plaza
• 35 Prospect Park West — Emery Roth's 1929 cooperative at Garfield Place; the other architect-signature prewar tower on the park
• 209 Lincoln Place — ten-story 1928 cooperative inside the original 1973 district
• 1 Prospect Park West — the 2019 condominium conversion at the foot of the plaza; condominium ownership with in-unit laundry
• 1 Grand Army Plaza — the 2006 glass condominium across the plaza; the new-construction counterpoint
• 185 Prospect Park Southwest — the 1961 park-facing elevator cooperative at the park's southern edge