130 Clinton Street
130 Clinton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
BBL 3002640017 · BIN 3002539
- Year built
- 1925
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 89
- Floors
- 12
- Landmark
- Designated
130 Clinton Street is Brooklyn Heights' original office-to-residential conversion story, told fifty years early. Mortimer E. Freehof designed the twelve-story tower at Clinton and Joralemon in 1925–26 as commercial offices — insurance-company space, in Brownstoner's account — at the moment when the Heights was still Brooklyn's white-collar center and its skyline was climbing. Freehof's façade treatment is the building's signature: Gothic tracery, carved ornament, and strong verticals applied to a modern commercial frame, a mode the LPC's district records call Commercial Gothic. The recessed corner entry, framed in that ornament, gives the building a presence on Joralemon Street that its office-block program never required. Within the Brooklyn Heights Historic District — designated November 23, 1965, the city's first — the tower stands among the tallest protected buildings, its upper floors clearing the surrounding row-house fabric.
The 1976 conversion is the second half of the story, and the structurally interesting half. Decades before office-to-residential conversion became a citywide policy topic — and decades before 110 Livingston Street's celebrated conversion a few blocks east — the building was reorganized as a cooperative of 89 apartments with retained commercial space, under the 150 Joralemon Street Owners Corp. That 1970s vintage matters practically: the conversion predates the 1980s wave that produced most Heights co-ops, and the building has now operated as a cooperative for half a century, with the governance maturity and capital history that implies.
The building's market role follows from its bones. Office frames deliver what prewar apartment houses often cannot: larger window openings, higher slab-to-slab heights on many floors, and upper-floor light and outlook unusual for the neighborhood — the top floors see over the Heights toward the harbor and Downtown Brooklyn. At the same time, the southeastern-quadrant location prices below the Promenade blocks while sitting closer to the borough's transit core, with Borough Hall's 2/3/4/5/R cluster three blocks away. For buyers who want Heights address, elevator service, and scale — in a district where twelve-story buildings essentially cannot be built again — 130 Clinton occupies a niche with almost no direct competition.
For sellers, the marketing assets are concrete: a named architect, a distinctive landmarked façade, an unrepeatable height position within the district, and a conversion vintage that reads as established rather than experimental.
Architecture and unit composition
Freehof's tower carries its Gothic program up a twelve-story shell: tracery and carved detail at the base and entry, vertical emphasis through the shaft, and massing of its 1920s commercial moment. Because the building began as offices, the residential floor plates are conversion layouts rather than classic-six plans — the 89 units reflect a 1976 reorganization of commercial floors, and configurations vary meaningfully across lines and floors. Buyers should expect the conversion-building pattern: efficient one- and two-bedroom layouts predominating, unit shapes driven by the original window grid and core, and occasional larger or combined units where the floor plate allowed. Ceiling heights and window scale on the office frame are the fabric-level draws; verifying the legal configuration and any combination history of a specific unit is standard diligence. The historic-district envelope governs all exterior work, windows included.
Building operations
150 Joralemon Street Owners Corp. has operated the building as a cooperative since 1976, with some commercial space retained at the base — a revenue feature worth understanding in the building's financials, since commercial income can meaningfully support a co-op budget of this size. No managing agent is publicly documented; management arrangements, staffing, the underlying mortgage, and the capital history (elevator modernization, LL11 façade cycles on a heavily ornamented twelve-story exterior) should be reviewed during diligence. On a building of this height and ornament, the façade maintenance cycle is a recurring budget item rather than an occasional one, and the reserve position should be read with that in mind.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Mar 4, 2026 | 2D | $879,000 |
| Jan 8, 2026 | 11D | $900,000 |
| Aug 20, 2025 | 7G | $950,000 |
| Jun 12, 2025 | 5F | $725,000 |
| Feb 19, 2025 | 3B | $505,000 |
| Sep 18, 2024 | 7B | $1,075,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00264-0017) 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
Conversion layouts reward in-person evaluation. Unit shapes vary with the original office grid; two apartments with identical room counts can live very differently. See the specific line before forming a price view.
Height is the scarce asset. Upper-floor light and outlook at this scale are effectively unrepeatable inside the historic district; they hold value accordingly.
Read the financials for the commercial income and the façade cycle. Retained commercial space can subsidize maintenance; a twelve-story ornamented façade means recurring LL11 scope. Both belong in your carrying-cost model.
Policies are board-set and undocumented publicly. Sublet, pet, financing, and transfer-fee rules should be confirmed directly with the cooperative at offer stage.
The location trades Promenade adjacency for transit. Borough Hall's full subway cluster is three blocks east; the Promenade is an eight-minute walk west. For commuters, that is often the right trade.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the architecture and the height. A Freehof-designed, Gothic-detailed landmark tower photographs distinctively; upper-floor listings should be marketed on outlook first.
Anchor pricing to conversion-building comparables. The right comp set is the Heights' converted and mid-band elevator co-ops, with line-specific adjustments for light and floor, rather than classic prewar-apartment math.
Present the building's operating story. A fifty-year-old conversion with commercial income and a mature board is a stability argument; have the financials summarized for buyers' attorneys.
Address condition head-on. The 2025 market's turnkey premium was pronounced in this tier; price unrenovated units to the spread or invest selectively before listing.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 130 Clinton Street, also evaluate:
- 110 Livingston Street — the celebrated later office-to-residential conversion nearby; the condominium alternative
- 75 Livingston Street — landmark Gothic-detailed tower co-op at Court Street; the closest architectural peer
- 77 Livingston Street — large elevator co-op on the same corridor
- 40 Clinton Street — major Heights prewar elevator co-op up the street
- 100 Remsen Street — mid-band prewar co-op two blocks west
- 1 Clinton Street (One Clinton) — contemporary condominium at the Cadman Plaza end of Clinton; the new-development alternative
- 96 Schermerhorn Street (Boerum Court) — co-op peer at the district's southeastern edge
- 166 Montague Street — boutique conversion condominium on the Heights' commercial spine
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 130 Clinton Street?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 130 Clinton Street would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.