159 Remsen Street
159 Remsen Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
BBL 3002500014 · BIN 3002097
- Year built
- 1930
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 18
- Floors
- 7
- Landmark
- No
- Pets
- Not publicly documented — confirm against current house rules
Remsen Street changes character at Clinton. West of it, the street is the brownstone-and-carriage-mews Brooklyn Heights that the historic district was drawn in 1965 to protect. East of it, Remsen runs the last block into the Court Street office district, past the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District's towers, and ends at the courts. 159 Remsen Street stands on that block, and nearly everything worth knowing about the building follows from where it stands.
The first consequence is regulatory. This lot is outside the Brooklyn Heights Historic District and outside the Borough Hall Skyscraper Historic District — a genuinely unusual position for a Heights address. Window replacement, façade repair, terrace and rooftop work here run through the Buildings Department alone, without Landmarks review, which shortens timelines and removes a category of cost that shareholders three hundred feet west carry permanently. Buyers who have watched a Heights co-op wait out a Landmarks permit for a window schedule will understand what that is worth.
The second is transit and services. A shareholder here walks two minutes to Borough Hall and reaches the 2, 3, 4, 5 and R from a single corner, with the A/C at High Street and the F at Jay Street–MetroTech close behind. Montague Street's retail is one block north; Court Street's is at the end of the block. That is the densest transit and services position anywhere in Brooklyn Heights, and it is why this eastern edge trades on convenience where the western blocks trade on quiet.
The third is the building itself. Seven stories, an elevator and a 1930 completion date place 159 Remsen in the last cohort of prewar apartment houses built in the Heights — the generation that came after the 1920s boom and before construction stopped. That vintage means solid masonry, high ceilings and rooms with defined boundaries, and it means the capital calendar of a ninety-five-year-old building: façade, roof, elevator, risers and boiler are all live line items.
The conversion paperwork is a legible period document. Remsen Street Equities Group acquired the building in 1981 from 125 Brook St Realty Corp, which had bought it the year before from the Averell family, and deeded it to Northeast-Remsen Corporation on August 2, 1982 — the heart of the early-1980s wave that produced most of the Heights' co-op inventory, with the same practical result four decades on: a shareholder-run building whose documents were drafted in one market and whose practice has evolved in another.
Architecture and unit composition
The building is a seven-story brick elevator apartment house holding, by Department of Finance count, 18 residential units — two to three apartments per floor, prewar Heights scale rather than institutional scale. The Department of Finance's cooperative comparable-rental record tabulates 21 total units across 20,570 gross square feet; the difference is most consistent with ground-floor professional or commercial space carried in the corporation, a common arrangement on this end of Remsen Street where medical and legal tenancies follow the courts. Whether a given apartment sits above such a use, and how the corporation treats that income, are diligence questions with real answers in the financial statements.
Layouts should be evaluated apartment by apartment. At this size and age, line position, exposure and renovation state drive value far more than nominal room counts, and four decades of combinations mean the current share ledger — not the 1982 schedule — governs. Exterior work runs through the Buildings Department alone; there is no Landmarks layer here.
Building operations
Northeast-Remsen Corporation has run the building since the 1982 closing, with NYC Best Property Management as managing agent per the cooperative's current HPD registration; the corporation's mortgage filings through 2018 carry a care-of address at Sandberg Management Corp., the earlier agent of record in the documents available to us. The operating model is the district's small-building standard: an elevator, a superintendent, and outside management.
The underlying mortgage is the most useful public number here. New York Community Bank has been the lender through the recent history; the debt was consolidated at roughly $1.07 million in June 2012 and refinanced and consolidated to $1.9 million in January 2018. Against 18 to 21 units that is a moderate per-unit load, and the 2018 refinancing tells a buyer the corporation has accessed institutional co-op lending on ordinary terms — a signal about financial condition no listing will contain. Confirm the current balance, maturity and amortization with management, along with the reserve position and assessment history.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Apr 8, 2026 | 5C | $507,500 |
| Aug 8, 2025 | 2C | $1,650,000 |
| Sep 28, 2023 | 3A | $710,000 |
| Jul 6, 2023 | #4B | $635,000 |
| Dec 20, 2022 | 2C | $1,260,000 |
| Jun 16, 2022 | 2-B | $640,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00250-0014) 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
The lack of landmark designation is an asset, and it is unusual here. Windows, façade and roof work run through the Buildings Department alone. Confirm it for your renovation plan and price it into the offer.
Verify the unit and share ledger. The 18-versus-21 spread between city records is most likely commercial or professional space. Have counsel confirm the corporation's current schedule and the apartment's shares.
Read the underlying mortgage. A $1.9 million consolidation in 2018 against this unit count is moderate, but you want the current balance, the maturity, and whether a refinancing is on the horizon.
Ask for every policy in writing. Sublet, pets, financing minimum and flip tax are undocumented publicly. Management's current answers control, and they belong in the file before contract.
What to know if you’re selling
Sell the transit position. Five lines from one corner, Montague a block north, Borough Hall at the end of the street — a checkable advantage over the district's western blocks.
Say that the building is not landmarked. Buyers planning a renovation will value it, and almost no Brooklyn Heights listing can make the claim.
Lead with condition. Where line position varies little, documented renovation quality and clean alteration files are the price-makers.
Have the co-op's financials ready. A steady mortgage history and a legible reserve position shorten both buyer diligence and lender underwriting.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 159 Remsen Street, also evaluate:
- 138 Remsen Street — brownstone cooperative a block west, inside the historic district; the district-versus-no-district comparison in its clearest form
- 132 Remsen Street — small Remsen Street building at comparable unit count
- 100 Remsen Street — larger prewar elevator cooperative on the same street
- 76 Remsen Street — prewar Remsen Street cooperative peer
- 92 Remsen Street — small Remsen Street cooperative to the west
- 56 Court Street — condominium at the Court Street seam; the ownership-form alternative in the same micro-location
- 110 Livingston Street — full-service condominium conversion two blocks southeast, at the Downtown Brooklyn edge
- 166 Montague Street — Montague corridor building one block north
- 60 State Street — boutique condominium on the district's southern edge
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 159 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 159 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.