185 York Street
185 York Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
DUMBO, Brooklyn
BBL 3000557504 · BIN 3398491
- Year built
- 2009
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 16
- Floors
- 6
- Landmark
- No
- Subletting
- Permitted - unit owners have 'an unrestricted right to lease, sell or mortgage units'; the board of managers has NO right of first refusal on the sale or lease of a unit (stated twice in the plan)
- Pied-à-terre
- Permitted - 'the condominium Board does not have the right to approve or disapprove Purchasers' and 'there is no limit on the number of owners who may purchase for investment rather than personal occupancy'
- Washer / dryer
- Stackable washer/dryer installed in every apartment; no common laundry room in the building
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated plan as filed 2010, Schedule A revised March 29, 2013). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
185 York Street is a small building in a part of DUMBO that most buyers never learn to read. The blocks between Bridge and Gold Streets sit in the gap between two historic districts — the DUMBO Historic District to the west, the Vinegar Hill Historic District to the north and east — and that gap is where the neighborhood's ground-up condominium construction of the late 2000s and 2010s actually happened. Nothing here is a Gair loft or a designated warehouse. What is here is newer, smaller, quieter, and priced well below the loft-conversion tier, with the same walk to the York Street F, the same Front Street retail, and the same waterfront.
The building itself is a sixteen-apartment condominium over a community facility unit and seven parking spaces, built by Val-Hugh Capital Corp., a Melville-based sponsor that bought the site in June 2006 and filed its offering plan for The City View Condominium on December 29, 2010. Every residential unit was designed with a terrace or balcony as a limited common element, and every apartment was delivered with a stackable washer/dryer in place of a common laundry room — two decisions that tell you the building was drawn for owner-occupants who wanted the practical benefits of new construction rather than the theater of an amenity package.
The sellout took a long time, and the record is worth understanding. The plan carried the full set of sponsor-friendly disclosures: an unconditional right to rent rather than sell, no commitment to sell more than the fifteen percent needed to declare the plan effective, and a warning that owner-occupants might never gain control of the board. Prices were still being amended in 2013 and 2014 — a fifth-floor two-bedroom repriced to $999,000 in March 2013, another to $1,099,000 in September 2014 — and the great majority of unit deeds were not recorded until August and September 2016, with the balance running into 2017. Whatever the sponsor's intentions in 2010, the outcome six years later was a fully sold building, and the years since have produced ordinary individual-owner resales.
The governance framework that came out of that plan is the most distinctive thing about the building for a buyer. The board of managers has no right to approve or disapprove purchasers and, unusually, no right of first refusal at all — on a sale or on a lease. Unit owners have an unrestricted right to lease, sell, or mortgage. For a pied-à-terre buyer, an investor, a foreign purchaser, or anyone who values a fast and frictionless closing, that is a materially more open structure than the DUMBO norm, let alone the cooperative tier across the bridge approach in Brooklyn Heights.
The tax position is the counterweight and deserves equal attention. The plan's tax exhibit projected annual real estate taxes of roughly $490 to $1,110 per apartment with the 421-a benefit in place, against roughly $3,970 to $8,950 for the same apartments without it. Department of Finance records show the exemption running on the units from completion. Where any specific apartment now sits on that schedule — full benefit, phase-out, or fully assessed — is a question to answer from the current tax bill, not from an assumption, and it will move the true monthly carrying cost more than any other single line.
Architecture and unit composition
Six stories on an R6A lot, with a cellar and basement below and no landmark jurisdiction over the exterior. The plan's Schedule A describes a straightforward stacking: three apartments per floor on floors one through four in an A/B/C pattern — two one-bedrooms of roughly 630 to 660 square feet and a two-bedroom of roughly 946 to 949 square feet — with the fifth floor carrying four units including the building's two largest, at approximately 1,193 and 1,206 square feet. Unit M1, at roughly 1,008 square feet, is the community facility unit and carries a parking space as a limited common element.
The consistent architectural feature across the residential inventory is private outdoor space: the plan allocates a terrace or balcony, and in some cases more than one, to every residential unit as a limited common element. In a neighborhood where the loft-conversion stock offers almost no private outdoor space at all, that is the building's clearest differentiator. Parking is the second: seven separately deeded parking units, five in the rear yard and two enclosed on the basement floor, in a part of Brooklyn where deeded parking is genuinely scarce.
Building operations
The City View Condominium operates as a small self-standing condominium with a professional managing agent engaged under the management agreement described in the plan, at a monthly fee of $480 as budgeted for the first year of operation. No agent is named in the public record, and current management should be confirmed during diligence; The Roebling Team remains the contact of record for transaction questions.
Projected first-year common charges under the revised Schedule A ran from roughly $249 a month for the smaller one-bedrooms to roughly $561 for the largest fifth-floor unit — figures consistent with a building that carries no staff, no common laundry, and no amenity program. Buyers should confirm the current common-charge schedule, the reserve position, and any assessment history, and should note that the plan reserved the sponsor's right to reallocate portions of common space to individual units as limited common elements or under license.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 17, 2020 | 5A | $720,000 |
| Oct 25, 2017 | 3B | $675,000 |
| Apr 6, 2017 | 1B | $650,000 |
| Jul 10, 2017 | 2C | $991,775.5 |
| Dec 20, 2016 | 1A | $665,000 |
| Dec 6, 2016 | P7 | $990,000 |
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 3-00055-7504) 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
Pull the tax bill before you write an offer. The 421-a benefit was worth an order of magnitude on this building's projected taxes. Where the specific unit stands on the exemption schedule is the difference between a low carrying cost and an ordinary one, and it should be confirmed against the current bill rather than the listing.
The governance is unusually open. No board approval of purchasers, no right of first refusal on sales or leases, and an unrestricted right to lease. That is an advantage for investor, pied-à-terre, and foreign buyers, and a consideration for owner-occupants who prefer a screened resident body.
Outdoor space and parking are the building's assets. Every apartment has a terrace or balcony, and seven parking units are separately deeded. Establish which limited common elements attach to the specific apartment, and whether a parking unit is available or included.
No common laundry, by design. The plan specifies an in-unit washer/dryer in every apartment instead of a laundry room. Confirm the machine's age and condition — the original equipment is now well past its service life.
Underwrite like a sixteen-unit building. Every capital project is divided sixteen ways. Review the reserve, the assessment history, and the condition of the roof, façade, and the rear-yard and basement parking areas.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the terrace. Private outdoor space attached to every apartment is a scarce feature in DUMBO, and it is the fastest way to separate this building from the neighborhood's loft inventory in a buyer's mind.
Be direct about the tax picture. Sophisticated buyers will model 421-a phase-out themselves. A transparent presentation of the current bill and the exemption status produces better outcomes than a listing that quotes a historical number.
Market the transaction mechanics. No board approval, no right of first refusal, and a permissive leasing framework mean a faster closing and a wider buyer pool than most Brooklyn inventory can offer. Say so.
Price against post-2005 ground-up condominiums. The right comparables are the neighborhood's newer small and mid-size buildings on the Bridge, Gold, and Front Street blocks, not the converted loft tier to the west.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 185 York Street, also evaluate:
- 206 Front Street — 31-unit 2006–07 ground-up condominium on the same block band between Bridge and Gold; the closest direct comparison
- 102 Gold Street (Ironwood) — boutique Vinegar Hill condominium a block east
- 100 Gold Street — small Vinegar Hill condominium on the same corridor
- 79 Bridge Street (The Bridges) — 37-unit condominium one block west
- 37 Bridge Street (Kirkman Lofts) — the loft-conversion alternative on the same street
- 85 Adams Street (The Beacon Tower) — 2004–06 ground-up condominium tower at the bridge approach
- 98 Front Street — full-amenity 2019–21 new construction; the newer, larger, higher-service alternative
- 133 Water Street — 52-unit 2006–07 new construction inside the DUMBO Historic District, with deeded parking
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