123 Pierrepont Street
123 Pierrepont Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
BBL 3002380006 · BIN 3001916
- Year built
- 1849
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 11
- Floors
- 5
- Landmark
- Designated
- Flip tax
- 1.5% of sale price (co-op's own lender disclosure dated March 15, 2011); traces to a per-share transfer fee adopted by board amendment to the house rules on November 2, 1984. Current rate and payer unverified
- Financing
- The 1980 first-mortgage commitment from Independence Savings Bank capped purchaser financing at 75% (25% minimum equity). That was a lender condition at conversion, not a documented standing board rule; current board standard unverified
- Subletting
- Board resolution, written consent of a majority of directors, or written consent or vote of shareholders owning at least 66-2/3% of outstanding shares (proprietary lease as filed, 1980); current policy unverified
- Washer / dryer
- Washer-dryer connections were installed in every apartment in the 1979-81 conversion, expressly to eliminate the need for a common laundry room (offering plan, Brief Description of the Property)
- Pets
- House rules as filed: no bird or animal without the Lessor's express written permission, revocable at any time; dogs carried or leashed in public areas. Current practice unverified
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 1980 plan as filed, with 1984 board amendments and a 2011 lender disclosure). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
123 Pierrepont Street is a rescue. By the late 1970s the two Greek Revival brownstones at 123 and 125 Pierrepont — built about 1849 and 1850, in the district's founding architectural generation — had stood totally vacant for more than twenty-five years. The sponsor's own account is unsparing: the front and rear walls were bowed, several interior sections of floor had given way, a large section of one rear wall had partially collapsed, and the City of New York had filed Unsafe Building applications against the property in 1973. On one of the best blocks in Brooklyn Heights, half a block from the Appellate Division courthouse and directly across from the Long Island Historical Society, two mid-nineteenth-century houses were a demolition candidate.
Pierrepont Investors Corp. bought them on October 19, 1979 for $385,000 and rebuilt them. George Schwarz, the sponsor's architect, filed plans on October 18, 1979 that were approved six weeks later under Alteration 2867/79 — underpinning the foundations, building a new stair and elevator shaft, and creating fourteen entirely new Class A apartments behind restored exterior masonry, with the brickwork done to Landmarks Preservation Commission approval. The rebuild ran roughly $1,120,000 in hard costs against $510,000 in soft. The offering plan was accepted for filing August 26, 1980, and the sponsor declared it effective June 19, 1981 with nine of the fourteen apartments subscribed.
What that rebuild bought, and what still distinguishes the building, is a 1980 mechanical specification inside an 1849 shell. The conversion installed a new elevator and steel stairways in a five-story pair of row houses; heated and cooled the whole building with electric heat pumps under individual apartment thermostats rather than a shared boiler, metering every apartment separately; and put washer-dryer connections in every apartment, which the plan states was done specifically to eliminate the need for a laundry room. In a district where in-unit laundry is the most-requested and least-available amenity in prewar co-op stock, a 1979 decision is still the building's strongest single selling point.
The layouts follow from the houses' geometry rather than an apartment-house grid. First-floor apartments were built as duplexes with large recreation rooms opening onto the private rear gardens; the second, third and fourth floors were all equal in size; the fifth floor carried three duplexes with roof terraces. Governance has stayed deliberately small — the sponsor made no arrangement to retain a managing agent, taking the view that a part-time superintendent hired by the corporation could handle the load, and the corporation's later disclosures still show a board-administered building. For a shareholder that means direct access and low overhead; it also means institutional memory lives with the board rather than with a firm.
Architecture and unit composition
Two five-story-and-basement Greek Revival brownstones with a combined 50-foot frontage on Pierrepont Street, on a lot running roughly 50 by 105 feet, joined into a single cooperative and a single building record. The exterior is 1849–50 fabric restored under LPC review; everything behind it dates to the 1979–81 rebuild. Documented from the conversion specifications:
- New elevator and steel stairways; new trash chute and intercom; fireproof apartment doors
- All-new Class A apartments — new partitions, brass plumbing, wiring, kitchens and tile bathrooms
- Electric heat-pump heating and cooling thermostatted apartment by apartment; separate electric meter per apartment; gas supplied for cooking
- Washer-dryer connections in every apartment; no common laundry room
- First-floor apartments built as duplexes with large recreation rooms and access to the private rear gardens
- Second-, third- and fourth-floor apartments built equal in size; three duplexes with roof terraces on the fifth
- Sound insulation between apartments and insulation at exterior walls and roof, per the 1979 specifications
The unit count requires care. The plan offered fourteen apartments on a total of just 200 shares — an unusually coarse allocation that makes per-share maintenance a large number and per-room comparison against conventional Heights co-ops awkward. Department of Finance records now carry eleven units. Combinations over four decades are the likely explanation, and the share book, not the plan, controls.
Building operations
Pierrepont Street Tenants Corp. has run the building since the 1981 closing. The operating model is the small-building model: a part-time superintendent hired by the corporation, board-level administration rather than a management firm, and a maintenance base that is light by district standards because there is no central boiler, no doorman and no laundry room to run. Audited financial statements held in The Roebling Research Library run from 2000 forward, supporting genuine trend analysis of maintenance growth, reserves and capital practice — an underwriting advantage many buildings this size cannot offer.
Board-adopted house rules add a few local requirements: every shareholder must keep at least one fire extinguisher in the apartment, and garbage must go to the basement containers in secured plastic bags, with a fine schedule attached. Shareholders are responsible for damage they or their guests cause in the common areas. For an 1849–50 masonry pair, the recurring capital items are façade and parapet work under FISP/LL11 with LPC review attaching, the rear walls and gardens, the roof and terraces — and, because the mechanical plant is unitized, heat-pump replacement cycles that fall largely on individual shareholders rather than on the corporation.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 13, 2023 | 2A | $1,600,000 |
| Dec 14, 2021 | 4A | $1,575,000 |
| Aug 26, 2021 | 2C | $2,470,000 |
| Jun 30, 2021 | 2A | $1,550,000 |
| Jul 3, 2019 | 3C | $2,200,000 |
| Jan 2, 2015 | 3C | $1,950,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00238-0006) 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
Everything behind the façade is 1980, not 1850. The houses are Greek Revival; the apartments, elevator, plumbing, wiring and mechanicals are a 1979–81 gut rebuild. That is a strength on systems and a diligence item on age — those systems are now four decades old.
The heat pumps are yours. All-electric heating and cooling metered per apartment means your utility bill carries what a boiler building would put in maintenance. Compare on True Monthly Carrying Cost and ask about the age of the unit's equipment.
Reconcile the share book. Fourteen apartments in the plan, eleven units in city records, 200 total shares. Your attorney should verify the specific unit's share allocation and any combination approvals.
In-unit laundry is the differentiator. Confirm the connections in the specific apartment and whether machines are installed — it is the feature that separates the building from its comparable set.
What to know if you’re selling
Tell the rescue story. Two 1849 Greek Revival houses, vacant twenty-five years, condemned as unsafe in 1973, rebuilt behind restored Landmarks-approved masonry in 1980. That is a documented narrative most Heights listings cannot match.
Lead with laundry, outdoor space and the elevator. Three amenities the district's small prewar co-ops rarely carry together. State them in the first line.
Price against the converted row-house set. The comparables are the Heights' boutique and brownstone-conversion co-ops, not the staffed Montague Street apartment houses whose maintenance runs far heavier.
Put the financial record to work. More than two decades of audited statements is an underwriting asset with both boards and lenders. Assemble them before you go to market.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 123 Pierrepont Street, also evaluate:
- 138 Pierrepont Street (The Brooklyn Trust Company Building) — the York & Sawyer bank conversion down the street; the marquee address on the block
- 35 Pierrepont Street — Mortimer E. Freehof's 1929 cooperative; the prewar elevator alternative on the same street
- 108 Pierrepont Street — small cooperative directly across the street
- 20 Pierrepont Street — interwar elevator cooperative, converted 1983
- 1 Pierrepont Street — Caughey & Evans prewar cooperative at the Columbia Heights end
- 22 Monroe Place — cooperative around the corner, by the Appellate Division courthouse
- 130 Clinton Street — Freehof's 1925–26 office-to-residential cooperative one block east
- Love Lane Mews (9 College Place) — boutique conversion condominium; the ownership-form alternative at similar scale
- 87 Hicks Street — small converted walk-up cooperative; the low-overhead comparison
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.
Considering a move at 123 Pierrepont Street?
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