143 South 8th Street (Long Island Business College)
143 South 8th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11211
BBL 3021320030 · BIN 3059536
- Year built
- 1891
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 9
- Landmark
- Designated
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A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at The Long Island Business College, the name under which the Landmarks Preservation Commission designated it 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.
This is one of the few individual landmarks on Williamsburg's South Side, and it is a cooperative of nine lofts. Henry C. Wright, who had run a business college in Williamsburg since 1873, bought the lot in 1890 and built a $90,000 school to train clerks, stenographers and bookkeepers for Brooklyn's banks, insurers and industrial firms. John F. Hylan, mayor of New York from 1918 to 1925, studied there.
The building had three institutional lives before it became housing. It was the business college until 1920. The city bought it and reopened it as Public School 166 in 1922. In 1943 the city sold it to the Beth Jacob Teachers Seminary of America, which ran a teachers' academy and girls' high school there into the mid-1960s. Its assembly hall hosted the Brooklyn Philosophical Association, whose speakers included Emma Goldman and Eugene V. Debs, per the LPC.
The conversion followed in the 1980s. ACRIS records the seminary's deed to Wilyesh Realty Corp. in November 1982. The LPC report dates the sale to 1984 and describes the buyers as a group of artists who converted the building to loft spaces. The co-op is about four decades old; the landmark designation came in 2013 and now governs the exterior.
Architecture and unit composition
Gaylor modelled the school on Brooklyn's public schools of the period, per the LPC, and made it a story taller than most. The South 8th Street front is a symmetrical five-part composition of red Philadelphia brick and Connecticut brownstone. A central tower with a convex mansard roof and square cap is flanked by slate mansards and end pavilions. The trim is rough-faced brownstone, with round-arched openings and carved spandrels at the main entrance. Behind the four-story front, three-story wings run back on both sides. The LPC called it well preserved, noting replacement sash, a resurfaced stoop, rooftop railings and lost pyramidal roofs on the end pavilions.
Classrooms and an assembly hall do not divide neatly into apartments. The nine lofts vary in size, height and layout, and apartment designations in ACRIS run by floor and letter. Confirm roof access for any specific unit.
Building operations
Landmark obligations. Windows, masonry, roofing, the stoop and any rooftop addition need an LPC permit. Ask the board what exterior work has been done since designation, what permits it holds and what is planned.
Systems. The Department of Buildings records a boiler replacement in 2008 (job 310208147). A 2024 alteration filing (job 322119435) kept the building's nine dwelling units and was signed off in 2026. Ask what it covered.
Finances. Financial statements were not available for this profile. The absence of a recorded underlying mortgage since 2017 is a strong signal, but confirm it against the corporation's statements. Ask for the latest audited statements, the reserve balance, any assessment, and how maintenance is allocated across shares.
Policy framework
None of the usual co-op policies (financing ceiling, board package, sublet terms, flip tax, pets, pied-à-terre, or purchases through a trust or LLC) is documented in public records or the libraries on file. Read the corporation's proprietary lease, by-laws and house rules before bidding, and ask the managing agent for the current application package.
Recent sales
Shares here change hands rarely. ACRIS records only about half a dozen market share transfers since 2005, the most recent in January 2025. Price each loft by floor area, ceiling height and light against Williamsburg's loft conversions, then adjust for the co-op structure and landmark exterior. There is rarely a recent comparable inside the building. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Jan 30, 2025 | 1A | $1,740,000 |
| Jul 31, 2013 | 3A | $1,825,000 |
| Sep 22, 2010 | 4 | $1,525,000 |
| May 3, 2007 | 2A | $1,450,000 |
| Mar 4, 2005 | 3C | $855,000 |
| Sep 29, 2008 | 2B | $880,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-02132-0030) 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.
Buying here? Co-op closing costs typically run 2 to 3% of the price. See NYC co-op and condo closing costs, line by line.
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What to know if you’re buying
Get the corporation's documents early. No offering plan or statements are in the libraries on file. Ask for the proprietary lease, by-laws, house rules, the last two years of audited statements, and the current application package.
Confirm financing is allowed, and how much. A nine-unit co-op may cap financing or reject it outright, and fewer lenders will lend against shares in a building this small. Settle both points before you contract.
Budget for the landmark. The exterior is designated. Masonry, slate and window work cost more under LPC rules. Ask what the building has spent and what it plans to spend.
Read the loft, not the listing. Layouts inherited from classrooms vary widely. Measure, and check the certificate of occupancy status for the specific unit.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the history. The LPC designation report tells the story, and few buildings in the neighborhood have one like it.
Assemble the package before listing. Current statements, house rules and the application requirements keep buyers from stalling.
Expect a narrow buyer pool. Lender limits on small co-ops and board approval both narrow it. Price for the buyers who can close.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 143 South 8th Street, also evaluate:
- 138 Broadway — Gaylor's 1884 iron-front loft building on the same block, a condominium and not landmarked
- The Ping Pong Factory (110 Clifton Place) — a Clinton Hill industrial building converted to a loft cooperative
- Eagle Warehouse (28 Old Fulton Street) — a nineteenth-century landmark warehouse converted to a cooperative
- The Ex-Lax Building (423 Atlantic Avenue) — a Brooklyn industrial-to-cooperative loft conversion
- The Milk Factory (270 5th Street) — a Park Slope industrial conversion owned as a cooperative
- 422 State Street — a small Brooklyn cooperative at similar scale
- The Gretsch (60 Broadway) — the Broadway factory conversion, for contrast as a condominium
More Williamsburg buildings
- 136 Powers Street — 2007 condominium
- 138 Broadway, Brooklyn (The Smith Gray Building) — 1884 condominium
- 14 Hope Street — 2008 condominium
- 144 North 8th Street — 2011 condominium
- 147 Hope Street — 2017 condominium
- 15 Lynch Street — 2005 condominium
The neighborhood
For the full neighborhood — its buildings, character, and market — read The Roebling Team Guide to Williamsburg.
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.
How to read the facts on this page. Items attributed to an offering plan describe the building as it was offered at that filing — unit mix, square footage, the amenity program as planned. They are not a statement about how the building operates today. Tax and compliance figures are sourced separately to current City records and carry their own dates. House rules, staffing and fee policy can change by board resolution without any public filing: treat every policy line here as a starting point for diligence and confirm it with the managing agent. Where this page compares one building or neighborhood to another, that is our analysis of the recorded record — it names the measure, the period and the sample it rests on, and it is an observation about medians rather than a prediction about any particular apartment.
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