144 North 8th Street
144 North 8th Street, Brooklyn, NY 11249
BBL 3023197501 · BIN 3061917
- Year built
- 2011
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 41
- Floors
- 14
- Landmark
- No
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at Long known locally as the Finger Building. It was marketed under its address 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.
A 14-story tower rises mid-block among three- and four-story row houses, a short walk from the Bedford Avenue L. It exists because of timing. The project was filed in 2004 under R6 zoning. The Greenpoint–Williamsburg rezoning, adopted by the City Council on May 11, 2005, remapped this midblock to contextual R6B, which caps new buildings far below this height. Ground had already been broken, and per press accounts a Board of Standards and Appeals approval let the tower finish under the old rules. PLUTO maps the entire block R6B today, so under current zoning nothing of this height can be built on it again. The upper-floor views depend on that.
The history is what gave the building its nickname. The original developer stalled the tower at about ten stories and lost it to lenders. GFI Capital took it over through Gabriel Realty LLC, redesigned it at 14 stories (two below the 16 in the original filing), and replaced planned rooftop mechanicals with a planted green roof. The architect of the original design was Robert Scarano Jr., whose Brooklyn towers of that era were a recurring subject of press coverage and DOB enforcement. The Finger Building was one of the most widely covered.
The sale went quickly. Press in January 2012 reported 70 percent of the 41 apartments in contract after a few months of marketing. ACRIS shows the sponsor closing essentially the whole building between April and June 2012. There is no sponsor inventory today. Every apartment is held by an individual owner or that owner's LLC or trust.
Architecture and unit composition
The tower is a slender tan shaft rising from a ground-floor commercial base. Because the site is mid-block, residents enter through a passage to the lobby. The offering plan describes new construction over an existing one-story commercial building. DOB's 2004 filings covered partial demolition, excavation and new foundations beneath it.
The apartments run in lettered lines: two on the second floor, four (A through D) from the third through eighth floors, and three from the ninth through twelfth. Above them are PH1-A and PH1-B, and PH2 takes the whole top level. The sponsor delivered in-unit laundry appliances. The line-by-line bedroom mix is set out in the offering plan's schedule, which is on file. From about the fourth floor up, the views are the product: open outlooks over low-rise North Williamsburg to the Manhattan skyline, and east and north across Brooklyn and Queens.
Building operations
The building is a 41-apartment condominium with a superintendent and a virtual doorman (a remote attendant service) rather than a staffed lobby. The plan's first-year budget included a porter and a parking attendant. The board of managers owns the parking unit and administers the 29 licensed spaces.
The ground-floor community-facility and commercial units are separately owned. They pay common charges on their own allocation, which the plan set by expected use for each group of units. Ask for the current budget split, and for any agreements covering the commercial unit's use of the building's systems.
The building is now about fourteen years old, the age at which new construction starts needing capital work. Interrogate the waterproofing on the second-floor terrace and green roof, the façade under LL11 (the city's periodic façade-inspection law), and the reserve position.
The tax position
This is the most important carrying-cost fact in the building. Department of Finance records show a 15-year 421-a exemption (code 5113, "15 YR NO CAP") on every residential lot, with a benefit start of 2009. The offering plan notes the project was vested for 421-a because its footings and foundation were poured before the June 30, 2008 deadline. The exemption shrank over its final years and dropped to zero on the 2023/24 roll. Owners have paid fully assessed taxes since.
For buyers, that means the current tax bill is the stable one, with no further step-up coming. Comparing it with Williamsburg condominiums still inside a 421-a term, particularly the 25-year waterfront benefits, requires adjusting for how much of their abatement remains. The commercial and community-facility units carry their own separate 25-year exemption from 2008, which does not reach the apartments.
Policy framework
Sales and leasing: Unusually open. The offering plan says an owner may sell or lease a unit to anyone, subject only to civil-rights laws. The sale-and-lease conditions in Article 7 of the by-laws apply, and a unit cannot be sold, leased or mortgaged until its common charges and liens are paid. Confirm whether any amendment since 2012 added a right of first refusal (the board's option to buy the unit on the contract terms) or a minimum lease term, and what the current application fees are.
Pets: The house rules require the board's written consent for any animal.
Parking: Spaces are licenses running with the parking unit, which the board holds. A space is not deeded real property. Confirm whether a license transfers with a particular apartment.
Recent sales
144 North 8th Street trades as new-development condominium product in dollars per square foot. Its peers are the Northside's post-2005 condominiums. The waterfront towers are a separate market. Two adjustments dominate. The first is floor: height here is scarce by law, so the premium for upper floors rises more steeply than in a waterfront tower where every floor has a view. The second is tax: this building's taxes are fully phased in, while many Northside comparables are still abated. Index market statements to 2025, the last complete year. Unit-level transaction history is maintained in The Roebling Research Library and shared with clients during diligence.
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Aug 24, 2026 | 12A | $3,300,000 |
| Nov 28, 2025 | 10B | $2,150,000 |
| Aug 15, 2016 | 2A | $1,728,750 |
| Jul 18, 2016 | 7-D | $1,247,500 |
| Aug 13, 2012 | 3C | $872,893.13 |
| Jul 26, 2012 | 12B | $1,298,268.75 |
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-02319-7501) 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.
Buying here? Condo closing costs with a mortgage typically run 3 to 6% 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
The tax bill is final. Use it. The 421-a benefit ended after 2022/23. Compare carrying costs on a fully taxed basis against abated peers before comparing prices.
Pay for the floor, not the address. Views from low floors are ordinary. Views from upper floors cannot be replicated on this block under current zoning.
Read the parking license. A space here is a license under a unit the board owns. Understand its term, fee and transferability.
Ask about the second-floor terrace and green roof. Both sit over occupied space and are the likely source of future capital work.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the height and the reason for it. The 2005 rezoning made this the last building of its kind on the block, and buyers respond when they understand the view is protected by zoning.
Address the taxes directly. Show your tax bill as a known figure against a comparable's rising one.
Use the nickname only if the buyer raises it. The address has been the building's name since 2012, and most of the value is on the upper floors.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 144 North 8th Street, also evaluate:
- 49 North 8th Street (North8): the 40-residence Toll Brothers condominium on the same street at Kent Avenue
- 150 North 5th Street (The Rialto): an off-Bedford loft condominium whose 421-a has also expired
- 110 North 1st Street: a 38-residence Northside condominium of similar size
- 215 North 10th Street (NX): a 31-unit Northside condominium over a commercial base, with no abatement
- 125 North 10th Street: an 86-unit Northside condominium with garage parking
- 214 North 11th Street (Warehouse 11): a 120-unit Northside condominium of the same cycle
- 80 Metropolitan Avenue: a 2008 condominium of townhouses and a tower, south of the Bedford spine
- 85 North 3rd Street (The Mill Building): a loft conversion a few blocks south, for the new-versus-loft comparison
More Williamsburg buildings
- 138 Broadway, Brooklyn (The Smith Gray Building) — 1884 condominium
- 14 Hope Street — 2008 condominium
- 143 South 8th Street (Long Island Business College) — 1891 co-op
- 147 Hope Street — 2017 condominium
- 15 Lynch Street — 2005 condominium
- 150 North 5th Street (The Rialto) — 1910 condominium
The neighborhood
For the full neighborhood — its buildings, character, and market — read The Roebling Team Guide to Williamsburg.
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.
Considering a move at Long known locally as the Finger Building. It was marketed under its address?
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