149 Willow Street

Five stories of 1889 brick and stone above a basement, with the Romanesque-era bay windows still carrying the front elevation. The interior is a 1942 plan: one interior stairway serving four apartments per floor in A, B, C and D lines, a single small elevator, and refuse chutes to a basement compactor.

The elevator deserves specific mention because it shapes the experience of the building. The 1982 engineering report describes a Burvak Elevator Company installation with a five-horsepower motor and a cab measuring roughly five feet by three — genuinely small, and old at the time of the report. Whether and when it was modernized is a first-order diligence question; ask for the elevator's inspection and capital history alongside the financials.

Unit composition is even by prewar standards. All twenty apartments carry similar share counts, and the plan’s C/D versus A/B price differences should not be attributed across every floor to a right held only by two ground-floor homes: Units 1C and 1D hold exclusive use of the rear yard. At conversion those two apartments were rented to the same tenant and had been physically consolidated into one unit, with the sponsor agreeing to correct the certificate of occupancy before closing. Any buyer looking at the ground floor should confirm the current legal configuration and the yard right in writing.

149 Willow Street Owners Corp. has run the building since the 1982-era closing, and it runs lean: a superintendent line in the budget, a small elevator, a compactor, and twenty apartments. There is no doorman, no laundry room documented in the conversion materials, and no amenity program.

Two operating features are worth understanding before making an offer. The shareholder-task rule — the board's authority to assign maintenance work among lessees on an equitable basis and bill the cost of hiring it out to whoever failed to do it — is a real provision in the building rules, and it signals a building that has historically expected participation. And the corporation carried an unusually long amendment history during the sponsor's wind-down, nineteen amendments across nine years, which makes the plan file thick and worth having your attorney read rather than skim.

For an 1889 masonry building in a historic district, the recurring capital items are façade maintenance (the reported five-story building falls below FISP’s higher-than-six-stories threshold), the bay windows and cornice, the roof, and the elevator. The co-op's financial statements in The Roebling Research Library support trend review on maintenance growth, assessments and reserve practice.

Pets: The building rules reviewed allow birds and animals subject to health, safety and no-roaming-free-in-public-areas conditions, but current pet rules require confirmation. Confirm the board has not narrowed them before marketing it.

Subletting: Administered through a formal sublet application maintained by the corporation. Get the current term limits, fees and approval standard in writing.

Shareholder maintenance tasks: The board may assign upkeep tasks equitably among lessees and charge a non-performing lessee for hired labor.

Noise and use: Musical instruments are limited to no more than two hours a day and are barred between 6:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m.; amplified equipment that causes interference outside the unit is prohibited; construction is confined to weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m.; floor area outside baths and kitchens must be adequately covered to limit sound transmission. Waterbeds and liquid-filled furniture require prior written consent, and shareholders are asked to cooperate with the corporation's energy-conservation measures.

Exterior work: LPC approval required for anything affecting the exterior, including windows.

Flip tax, financing minimums, pied-à-terre: Not documented in the materials reviewed. Confirm with management before contract.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, from The Roebling Research Library. Prices are the transfer amounts recorded with the NYC Department of Finance; apartment-level detail is checked against the building’s own file in The Roebling Research Library before publishing.

Market read. Median listing discount -21.1% over ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00235-0015). Apartment-level facts (line, condition, asking-price context) curated and cross-verified in The Roebling Research Library. Not all transactions cross-verify with ACRIS records — sponsor and LLC purchases sometimes record at stipulated values rather than market price.

Read the plan file, not just the plan. Nineteen amendments across the sponsor's wind-down means the operative terms may sit in an amendment rather than the original document. Your attorney should work the whole file.

Ask about the elevator. The 1982 engineering report described a very small, very old cab. Confirm what has been modernized and when, and whether a capital project is pending.

Confirm the ground-floor configuration. Units 1C and 1D were consolidated at conversion with a certificate-of-occupancy correction promised by the sponsor. If you are buying on the ground floor, verify the current legal unit and the rear-yard right in writing.

The pet rule is a real advantage. The building rules permit animals without a written-permission regime. If pets matter to you, confirm the board still reads the rule that way — and price the flexibility in.

Expect a participatory building. Twenty apartments, lean staffing, and a rule authorizing assigned maintenance tasks. That is a feature for some buyers and a deal-breaker for others.

Name the building’s dates and sources precisely. An apartment building was planned in 1889, then rebuilt into its present twenty apartments in 1942 and converted in 1982. LPC lists J. S. Glover; the contemporary 1889 construction notice names J. G. Glover. Resolve those initials from the original building application before presenting the architect’s identity as settled.

Photograph the original detail first. Mantels and stained glass are what this building's resale record turns on. If your apartment has them, they lead.

If you have the yard, lead with the yard. Exclusive outdoor space on a Willow Street ground floor is a category of one or two in the whole building.

Surface the pet policy. A prewar Heights co-op that permits animals without a permission regime narrows nothing and widens your buyer pool. Say so in the listing.

Price against the small Willow Street and Columbia Heights set. Those are the comparables — not the district's full-service elevator buildings with heavier maintenance.

If you're considering 149 Willow Street, also evaluate:

• 115 Willow Street — small prewar co-op on the same block; the closest street comparable
• 128 Willow Street — Slee & Bryson's 1925 co-op directly across the way
• 135 Willow Street — larger Willow Street co-op with a fuller service model
• 129 Columbia Heights — small prewar co-op one street west, on the Promenade side
• 160 Columbia Heights — full-service prewar co-op peer near the harbor edge
• 87 Hicks Street — 1889 walk-up co-op of similar vintage and scale on Hicks Street
• 35 Pierrepont Street — moderate-scale prewar co-op at the corner of the block
• 1 Pierrepont Street — prewar co-op at the Promenade end of Pierrepont
• 15 Clark Street — prewar elevator co-op two blocks north at the express station