11 Schermerhorn Street
11 Schermerhorn Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
BBL 3002680015 · BIN 3002613
- Year built
- 1914
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 29
- Floors
- 6
- Landmark
- Designated
- Flip tax
- None documented. The June 2005 house-rule fee schedule listed 'Flip tax or transfer: To be determined'; the June 15, 2010 schedule that superseded it sets sales fees without one
- Subletting
- Written board approval required; a guest may not occupy for more than 90 days while the shareholder is not in residence without a sublet application; renter's insurance required with evidence filed; security deposit equal to two months' maintenance; $250 application fee and $50/applicant credit check; MONTHLY SUBLET FEE OF 20% OF BASE MAINTENANCE
- Washer / dryer
- Prohibited outright - washing machines, dryers and like devices are absolutely barred within apartments; electric stoves permitted only where gas service is unavailable
- Pets
- Prior written board approval required via a formal Application for a Pet plus a signed Pet Registration and Agreement; the board may request a reference and a meeting with the prospective pet, may reject any pet it considers problematic, and may require a security deposit up to $250; approvals are not transferable; licensing and inoculation records on request; litter must be bagged and binned, not sent down the compactor chute
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 2010 (house rules)). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
11 Schermerhorn Street is a 1914 six-story elevator building with twenty-nine apartments, sitting at the exact point where Brooklyn Heights stops being a brownstone neighborhood and becomes Downtown Brooklyn. That position is the whole argument for and against the address, and it should be stated without spin: this is not Willow Street. It is a block from Atlantic Avenue, two from Borough Hall, and inside a five-minute walk of nearly every subway line that serves Brooklyn — the 2, 3, 4, 5, R, and the A, C, F, and G a short walk beyond. Buyers who value transit and price over quiet find this the best trade in the historic district. Buyers who want the Promenade at the end of their block should look west.
The architecture rewards attention. Robert T. Lyons was a Manhattan specialist — the St. Urban on Central Park West in 1906, the Gramercy Park Hotel in 1925, and 903 Park Avenue in 1916, a seventeen-story tower that its promoters called the tallest apartment building in the world when it opened. The published record of his practice identifies 11 Schermerhorn as his single documented Brooklyn commission, and associates it with Bing & Bing, the developers who commissioned Lyons at 903 Park and who were building some of the most carefully detailed apartment houses in the city in these years. That attribution comes from the architectural record rather than from a deed in hand, and it is worth stating as such — but if it holds, this is a Bing & Bing building on a Brooklyn side street, which is a genuinely unusual thing to own.
The apartments themselves are small, and that is the second fact a buyer should absorb early. The 1986 share schedule lays the building out in front-east, rear-east, and two west lines across six floors — roughly five apartments per floor — with room counts running two and three rooms and only a handful at four. Share blocks run from 130 to 279. Nothing in the original schedule approaches the eight-room prewar apartments found in the Heights' larger buildings. What this building offers is well-built prewar studios and one-bedrooms at a price and a carrying cost that the district's larger stock cannot match, in a location that suits the buyer profile those apartments attract.
The conversion history is straightforward and worth knowing. Fiat Realty Corporation had owned 11 Schermerhorn since June 1957 — twenty-nine years — before filing a non-eviction plan in January 1986. Shares went to tenants at $420 and to outsiders at $600, and title closed that December. Two years later, with the sponsor corporation dissolved and its sole shareholder standing in as sponsor of record, four of the twenty-nine apartments remained unsold; the corporation's 1987 statements show maintenance running $25.03 per share against total operating expenses of $144,426, with a mortgage at 12.5 percent ballooning in 1993. That is a thin, tightly run small co-op operating through the hardest years for buildings of its type — and it survived them, which is the relevant point today.
Architecture and unit composition
Six stories, twenty-nine apartments, one elevator, a compactor chute, a basement laundry room and storage closets, and a courtyard behind the building with a designated children's play area. The offering plan's Schedule A organizes the building into an east-front line, an east-rear line, and two west lines, five apartments to a floor, in two-, three-, and occasionally four-room configurations. At conversion the tenancy was a mix of rent-controlled and rent-stabilized households, which the schedule marks apartment by apartment — the ordinary pattern for a 1986 Brooklyn plan and a reminder that the building's unit mix was shaped by decades of regulated occupancy before any share was sold.
Exterior work runs through Landmarks under the 1965 district designation. Window air conditioners require approved supporting brackets and prior sign-off on the installation; awnings, ventilators, signage, and antennas all require written approval. Inside, the house rules require 80 percent floor covering with padding outside kitchens, bathrooms, and closets, and confine construction to weekdays between 9:00 a.m. and 5:00 p.m. with prior written approval and proof of contractor insurance.
Building operations
11 Schermerhorn Street Apartment Corporation has operated the building since the December 1986 closing. The conversion budget described a resident, non-union superintendent paid under the New York State Building Service minimum wage order, #6 oil heat, and a laundry concession taking half of gross receipts — a lean model appropriate to a twenty-nine-unit building and a large part of why maintenance here compares favorably to the Heights' staffed elevator co-ops. Current staffing, fuel, and laundry arrangements should be confirmed with management.
The house rules give an unusually clear picture of day-to-day governance. Shareholders must keep working keys with the superintendent and carry cooperative or homeowner's insurance with evidence and renewals filed. Moves run Monday to Friday, 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., on 48 hours' notice against a $2,500 deposit; deliveries require 24 hours' notice. Front doors may not be propped open unmonitored, and residents are asked not to buzz in anyone they do not personally know — a security posture that reflects the block. Late maintenance draws a $50 fee after the tenth. Alterations carry a $25 application fee and a $2,500 deposit, with $100 retained where the work involves demolishing a wall or moving appliances and cabinetry.
The co-op's audited financial statements in The Roebling Research Library run from 2000 forward, supporting trend review of maintenance growth, reserves, and assessment history. For a 1914 masonry building, the FISP/Local Law 11 façade cycle and elevator modernization are the capital items to examine first.
Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent transfers at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 1, 2024 | 3E | $558,500 |
| Aug 8, 2022 | 5RE | $775,000 |
| Jul 18, 2022 | 6RE | $735,000 |
| Oct 3, 2018 | 4WA | $825,000 |
| Nov 1, 2016 | 2FE | $940,000 |
| Nov 6, 2014 | 4WA | $725,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00268-0015) and verified listing data. Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified by The Roebling Team research desk. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price.
What to know if you’re buying
Walk the block at three different hours. This is the historic district's Downtown edge. The transit access is extraordinary and the street is busier than the Heights' interior. Both are true, and only one of them shows up in photographs.
In-unit laundry is not available and will not be approved. The house rules prohibit washers and dryers outright. Confirm the current rule, but plan on the basement laundry room.
Start the pet conversation before you sign. Board approval, a written application and agreement, possibly a reference and a meeting with the animal, and a possible deposit. This is a solvable step, not a formality.
Expect prewar rooms at prewar scale. The original schedule is built around two- and three-room apartments. Judge the specific unit on light, floor, and renovation quality rather than on the building's average.
What to know if you’re selling
Name the architect. Robert T. Lyons — St. Urban, Gramercy Park Hotel, 903 Park Avenue — with 11 Schermerhorn as his only documented Brooklyn building, and a credible Bing & Bing association behind it. Very few buildings on this side of the district can offer a line like that.
Sell the transit math explicitly. Borough Hall and Court Street put nearly every Brooklyn line within a five-minute walk, and the commute times are the honest headline for this address.
Frame the location before a buyer does it for you. Brooklyn Heights Historic District, at the Downtown edge, one block from Atlantic Avenue. Buyers who are told this up front price it; buyers who discover it on arrival discount it.
Lead with carrying cost. A twenty-nine-unit prewar with a lean staffing model and no documented flip tax presents unusually well on a True Monthly Carrying Cost basis against the district's full-service co-ops. Put the numbers in the marketing.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 11 Schermerhorn Street, also evaluate:
- 96 Schermerhorn Street (Boerum Court) — co-op three blocks east at Boerum Place, outside the historic district; the direct Downtown-edge comparison
- 76 Schermerhorn Street (The Symon) — new-construction condominium on the same street, for buyers weighing tenure form and vintage
- 130 Clinton Street — prewar co-op one block west on Clinton, deeper inside the historic district
- 40 Clinton Street — larger Clinton Street co-op toward the Heights' residential core
- 110 Livingston Street — the Board of Education building's condominium conversion, two blocks southeast
- 77 Livingston Street — prewar co-op on the Livingston corridor at comparable price positioning
- 75 Livingston Street — the 1926 tower co-op nearby, for buyers who want prewar scale with more services
- 100 Remsen Street — prewar co-op in the Heights' residential core, for a direct read on what the quieter blocks cost
The full playbook — what goes in the package, how boards read your financials, the interview, and the timeline — plus sample cover, reference, and personal letters you can adapt.
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