187 Hicks Street (Florence Court)

Seven stories over a basement, with an elevator machine room and stair penthouse above, on a lot that fronts three streets. Construction is Class 3 non-fireproof: brick and stone bearing walls carrying interior I-beams and cast-iron columns, with wood joist floors from the second floor through the seventh and at the roof. Every elevation is finished in stone and brick except the east, which is plain brick — the difference between the public faces on Hicks, Pierrepont, and Love Lane and the working rear.

The 1968 Certificate of Occupancy governs the building as a thirty-family Class A multiple dwelling with 30 simplex apartments and 139 residential rooms. The 1978 plan offered 29 of them across 1,947 shares, and the Department of Finance carries 29 today. The alteration record — filings in 1916, 1919, 1923, 1942, 1965, 1966, and 1968 — explains the gap between the seven-room apartment-hotel suites of 1900 and the mix that exists now: seven decades of subdivision and reconfiguration before a single share was ever sold. Layouts vary meaningfully from line to line as a result, and floor plans in this building repay close reading rather than assumption.

Windows and all other exterior work run through the Landmarks Preservation Commission under the 1965 district designation. The house rules impose an 80 percent floor-covering requirement outside kitchens, pantries, baths, closets, and foyer, and confine construction to weekdays between 8:30 a.m. and 5:00 p.m.

Florence Court Corporation has run the building since the 1979-era closing. The conversion-year documents describe an operation built around an elevator service contract, a burner maintenance contract, #6 oil heat at roughly 36,600 gallons a year, and laundry equipment owned by a concession rather than by the corporation. Current arrangements should be confirmed; the point of the historical figures is the shape of the operating model, which is a small elevator building with contracted services rather than a staffed full-service house.

The co-op's later shareholder policy memoranda show how the corporation runs today. Alteration scopes are reviewed by management and the corporation's attorney at a documented hourly rate, with the building's architect consulted where the work warrants and field inspections and plan review billed to the shareholder. Improper disposal of construction refuse is treated as a default under the proprietary lease and carries a documented $300-per-incident fine. These are the marks of a board that manages renovation risk in an old non-fireproof building with wood joists — the right instinct, and something a buyer planning a gut renovation should price into both the budget and the timeline.

The co-op's audited financial statements in The Roebling Research Library run from the late 1990s forward. For a 1900 masonry building, the recurring items to review are the FISP/Local Law 11 façade cycle — with the ornamental Hicks Street elevation making that cycle more expensive than a plain wall would be — the elevator's modernization history, and the age of the heating plant.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00236-0018) 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.

Read the specific floor plan, not the building average. Seventy years of alterations preceded the 1978 conversion. Apartment-to-apartment variation in this building is real, and comparing on rooms alone will mislead you.

Understand what non-fireproof, wood-joist construction means for your renovation. The board's alteration process is deliberate and billed to the shareholder, with attorney and architect review. Budget the professional fees and the calendar, not just the contractor.

Love Lane is private. No city snow removal, street cleaning, or trash collection on that frontage. It is a large part of the charm and a small part of the cost.

Ask for the façade file. An ornamented 1900 masonry elevation on three street frontages is more expensive to maintain than a flat wall. The FISP history and the next cycle's scope are the documents that matter.

Lead with the history, because it is documented. A 1900 apartment hotel by Frank Lowe for Louis J. Horowitz — the future head of the firm that built the Woolworth Building — on the McLean mansion site, sold out before it opened, with a top-floor dining room and a Turkish smoking room. Almost no comparable co-op has a provenance this specific.

Plan the marketing around the open-house rule. Two weeks' notice, a lobby-supervision fee, escorted visitors, and no signage. That changes how you run first weekend, and it rewards appointment-based, well-prepared showings over volume.

Sell the pocket. Love Lane and College Place are among the most distinctive addresses in Brooklyn Heights, and buyers who have not walked them do not know they exist.

Position against the district's small prewars. The right comparison set is the twenty-five- to forty-unit prewar cooperatives of central Brooklyn Heights, where Florence Court's architecture is the differentiator and its service model is in line.

If you're considering Florence Court, also evaluate:

• 160 Henry Street — the prewar elevator co-op sharing the same block, running the Henry Street frontage from Pierrepont to Love Lane
• 161 Henry Street — Schneider & Herter's 1905 Beaux-Arts co-op one block east; the closest peer in vintage and architectural ambition
• 9 College Place (Love Lane Mews) — condominium on the interior lanes, immediately north
• 145 Hicks Street — larger Hicks Street co-op on the same side of the street, north of Love Lane
• 153 Henry Street — prewar co-op peer opposite the foot of Love Lane
• 35 Pierrepont Street — prewar co-op on the same Pierrepont corridor, toward Willow Street
• 130 Hicks Street — Hicks Street co-op one block north, postwar construction at comparable scale
• 115 Willow Street — small prewar co-op two blocks west, for buyers weighing quiet against corner presence