1080 Lorimer Street

The residential section is the 1954 annex, rebuilt. PKSB's scope covered a horizontal expansion of the existing structure, a one-story rooftop addition, and a complete façade replacement — the last being the piece Landmarks cared about, since the annex's original elevation had nothing to preserve. The replacement façade uses plain materials in a rhythm that echoes the bank's decorative bays without imitating them, which is why the two read as related rather than matched.

Inside, the plan describes 29 residences, including duplexes, and the marketing at launch described one- to three-bedroom layouts with oversized casement windows, high ceilings, white oak flooring, and central heating and cooling. Because the building is a conversion of a wide, shallow office floor plate rather than a purpose-built residential slab, unit geometry varies more than in new construction: floor plates differ, some residences run through, and the inner court gives certain lines an exposure others do not have. The plan also carries a lot-line window disclosure — lot line windows are treated as amenities that can be lost if an abutting owner redevelops — and notes that there are no roof development rights available to unit owners.

One point of arithmetic to carry into diligence. The condominium comprises 30 unit lots: Unit C1, the non-residential banking hall, and 29 residences. PLUTO reports 27 residential units on the billing lot because two residential unit lots are extracted separately. Twenty-nine is the operative figure, and the number a buyer's attorney should confirm against the recorded declaration and its amendments rather than against any data feed.

The service model is modest and the plan says so. The budget funds a full-time, non-resident superintendent working a forty-hour week, Monday through Friday, with hours set by the residential board, and anticipates non-union building staff. There is no attended lobby in the plan's budget. Confirm current staffing, hours and any entry-system arrangement with the managing agent, because the plan documents a position, not a schedule, and the schedule is what an owner experiences.

Amenities are compact and well placed for a 29-unit building: a gym on the second floor, a roughly 363-square-foot lounge with a pantry and cable at basement level, a roughly 524-square-foot outdoor recreation space in the inner court adjoining that lounge and fitted with a sink, and a cellar bicycle room sized for about sixteen bicycles at no charge to owners. The courtyard's value is positional — it faces the bank's dome, which is the single best thing about living here and the hardest thing to replicate anywhere else in Greenpoint.

Storage is licensed rather than deeded. Ten cellar storage bins are held under a master license to the residential board and sub-licensed to owners, and the plan discloses without hedging that the bins are in the cellar, have no floor drains, and may be exposed to water. Price them as a convenience, not as an asset, and ask whether a particular apartment carries one.

Purchaser review: Condominium mechanics — a board right of first refusal rather than cooperative-style approval and interview. Closing timelines of 30 to 45 days are typical.

Property taxes: No 421-a, 485-x, J-51 or other transferable exemption on any unit lot per the Department of Finance exemption detail for the current roll. The roll shows no benefit stepping down; check each apartment's tax bill for any abatement before modeling taxes.

Flip tax / transfer fee: No flip tax is disclosed in the offering plan. The plan did impose a sponsor-era Resale Fee — a purchaser who contracted to resell before the first anniversary of the first closing owed the sponsor 50 percent of the resale profit — which by its own terms falls away once the sponsor no longer holds unsold units. It should not affect a resale today, but a purchaser's attorney should confirm the sponsor's position rather than assume it.

Storage: Licensed, not deeded, and not independently transferable. Ten bins total.

Smoking: The plan permits smoking and electronic cigarettes inside individual residences and on their appurtenant balconies and terraces, and prohibits both in the common elements.

Landmarks: Any exterior alteration beyond routine maintenance requires Landmarks Preservation Commission review and approval before a Department of Buildings permit will issue. That includes work an owner might otherwise treat as routine — window replacement in particular.

Pets, subletting and pied-à-terre: The current house rules on pets and leasing are not fully settled by the plan record on file, and this page will not assert what it cannot document. Pied-à-terre use is documented as permitted; leasing is subject to the current declaration and house rules, including any right of first refusal and minimum lease term. Confirm all three with the managing agent before making an offer that depends on them.

Recent sales

Recent closings 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. Most recent trades (2024) cleared a median $1,336/sf (floor-adjusted) across 2 sales. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 2.2% 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 3-02596-7501; each condominium apartment is its own tax lot). 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 from recorded condo declarations and offering plans.

Underwrite the current tax bill. The roll shows no exemption stepping down; check the apartment's bill for any abatement. Run the current bill through a carrying-cost model and compare it against the abated buildings you are also touring, then decide what that difference is worth in price.

Read the allocation between the residential and non-residential sections. The plan already fixes one number — the residential section pays 14.96 percent of the cost of maintaining and replacing the retail unit's façade. Ask what else is shared, on what basis, and what the commercial owner's plans are for the historic banking hall.

Landmarks review is real and it applies to you. Window replacement, terrace work and anything else touching the exterior needs Commission approval before a permit. Budget time as well as money.

Confirm storage before you price it. Ten bins, licensed not deeded, in a cellar the plan itself says may take water. Get the license, the fee, and the condition in writing.

Understand the staffing model. A weekday superintendent, not a doorman. If package handling and door coverage matter to you, ask what the board has actually put in place since the sellout.

Lead with the thing no one else has. A courtyard and lounge looking straight at the fish-scale dome of a 1906 Helmle & Huberty banking temple is not a feature that can be built next door. Sell the address, the district and the view.

Get ahead of the tax conversation. A buyer's attorney will check the tax position early, and the roll shows no exemption. Presenting it yourself — with the plan's own tax-counsel estimate and the current bill — produces a better outcome than having it discovered.

Explain the two-address problem before a buyer stumbles into it. Data feeds return 807 Manhattan Avenue for this lot. Say so first, and explain the through-block parcel, rather than letting it look like a discrepancy.

Anchor to matched lines. Conversion floor plates vary. Same-line, same-exposure sales from 2025 forward are the defensible comparables; building averages are not.

Condominium mechanics differ from a co-op's. There is no co-op board admission; purchases run through the condominium's application and right-of-first-refusal process. Confirm the timing in the current declaration and bylaws before stating it to buyers.

If you're considering 1080 Lorimer, also evaluate:

• 50 Greenpoint Avenue — the nearest boutique Greenpoint condominium of comparable scale and ambition
• 29 Huron Street — the larger, amenity-led Greenpoint waterfront alternative, and the abatement comparison a buyer will make
• The Greenpoint (21 India Street) — the full-service waterfront tower; the opposite end of the same neighbourhood's for-sale market
• Austin Nichols House (184 Kent Avenue) — the Cass Gilbert warehouse converted to residences; the closest peer in conversion logic on the same shoreline
• 85 North 3rd Street (The Mill Building) — Williamsburg's industrial conversion benchmark, for buyers shopping character over new construction
• The Gretsch (60 Broadway) — a landmark-era Williamsburg conversion with a comparable ceiling-height and layout story
• Court Street Lofts (505 Court Street) — the Carroll Gardens conversion alternative, at a much larger scale (124 residential units in city records)