132 Remsen Street
132 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
BBL 3002547501 · BIN 3002236
- Year built
- 1879
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 12
- Floors
- 4
- Landmark
- Designated
132 Remsen Street is a rarity in Brooklyn Heights: a condominium, not a cooperative, inside a mid-nineteenth-century row house in the district's first historic district. Almost the entire small-building stock of the Heights converted to cooperative ownership in the 1970s and 1980s. 132 Remsen went the other way, and it went late — the declaration was recorded with the City Register on June 23, 1992, with the floor plans filed the same day, and the first unit deeds closed in January 1994.
For buyers, that single structural fact is the reason to look here. A twelve-unit condominium in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District carries the ownership form that most of the neighborhood does not offer: deeded real property rather than shares and a proprietary lease, no purchase application before a board, and a financing and ownership flexibility that the district's co-ops generally withhold. Buyers who have been turned away from Heights co-ops for structure rather than for substance — trust and entity purchasers, foreign purchasers, buyers who want a second home or the ability to lease — end up on a very short list of addresses, and this is one of them.
The building itself is straightforward Heights fabric. The LPC's district records give the style as Anglo-Italianate and the date as 1861; DOF carries 1879. Either way it belongs to the row-house wave that filled the eastern half of the district before the Civil War and just after, and it sits on the block bounded by Remsen, Joralemon, Henry and Clinton, with Hunts Lane — one of the neighborhood's surviving mews — running through the interior. The lot is the unusual part: 31 feet 3 inches wide but 125 feet deep, carrying roughly 9,550 square feet of building. A four-story house of that depth is what allows twelve apartments where a standard Heights lot would yield five or six.
What this page cannot tell you is what the condominium's own documents say. No offering plan for 132 Remsen Street is held in the Library — the folder filed under this address in fact contains the plan for a Park Slope condominium whose sponsor happened to use 132 Remsen as its mailing address, and none of it applies here. That gap is not a small one for a condominium, where the declaration and by-laws control leasing, alterations, board rights and the allocation of common charges. Order them early.
Architecture and unit composition
The building presents as a four-story Anglo-Italianate house on Remsen Street and runs deep behind that frontage, which is where the apartments come from. Twelve units across four floors and a cellar means an average interior of roughly 700 to 800 square feet gross — a studio, one-bedroom and small two-bedroom building, with the variation driven by front-versus-rear position and by whether a unit picks up the garden level, the rear extension or the top floor. There is no elevator of record; DOF's R2 unit classification places the units in a walk-up building. Cellar space was renovated under a 2013 filing by the condominium, which is the usual sign of a board formalizing storage or mechanical space. Exterior work, windows included, runs through the LPC under the district designation.
Building operations
The condominium has operated since 1992 as a small self-directed board. A twelve-unit walk-up condominium has no staff economics to speak of: no doorman, no live-in superintendent, common charges that cover heat, water, insurance, cleaning, and a reserve if the board has funded one. The consequence is a low-carrying-cost building with a thin cushion, and that trade is the central operating fact here. A single façade cycle, a boiler, or a roof lands on twelve unit owners rather than on eighty. Ask for the last three years of financial statements, the reserve balance, the FISP filing status on an 1860s-to-1870s masonry wall, and any assessment history — and read them together rather than separately.
Recent sales
Recent closings 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 5, 2024 | 12 | $1,075,000 |
| Mar 22, 2023 | 11 | $1,087,756 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00254-7501) 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
Order the declaration and by-laws first. No offering plan is publicly available. Leasing rights, alteration procedure, any right of first refusal and the common-interest schedule all live in the recorded documents, and they are what you are actually buying.
Confirm the unit count and your common interest. Twelve unit tax lots are recorded; DOB filings have carried 11 and 15. Your attorney should tie the specific unit to its recorded lot and percentage.
Underwrite a twelve-unit reserve. Small condominiums have small cushions. Pull financials, reserve balance, FISP status and assessment history before you commit.
Value the ownership form. In a district that is overwhelmingly cooperative, the condominium structure is the reason many buyers are here at all — and the reason the building's resale pool is broader than its neighbors'.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the structure. Condominium ownership inside the Brooklyn Heights Historic District is scarce. That is the headline, and it widens the buyer pool to include purchasers the surrounding co-ops cannot accept.
Document the building's finances. Small-building buyers and their attorneys go straight to the reserve and the façade file. Having current statements and FISP status ready shortens diligence and protects price.
Price per square foot, and against condominium comparables. The district's per-room co-op convention will undersell the building. Comparable Heights boutique condominiums are the right set.
Sell the block. Remsen between Henry and Clinton, with Hunts Lane behind it, is quiet, landmarked and three blocks from Borough Hall's transit. Make the walk part of the pitch.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 132 Remsen Street, also evaluate:
- 151 Joralemon Street — same block, brownstone-scale co-op alternative on the Joralemon frontage
- 138 Pierrepont Street — thirteen-unit Heights condominium; the closest peer in scale and structure
- 205 Hicks Street — boutique condominium conversion in the western Heights
- 166 Montague Street — small condominium on the Montague retail spine
- 9 College Place (Love Lane Mews) — mews-scale condominium in the northern Heights
- 56 Court Street — twelve-unit condominium at the Court Street edge; the direct size comparable
- 100 Remsen Street — the corridor's larger prewar cooperative alternative
- 76 Remsen Street — small-scale Remsen Street co-op peer
Considering a move at 132 Remsen Street?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at 132 Remsen 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.