2 Montague Terrace
2 Montague Terrace, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
BBL 3002080508 · BIN 3001519
- Year built
- 1927
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 21
- Floors
- 12
- Landmark
- Designated
- Flip tax
- 2% of gross sales price payable by the PURCHASER at closing; 1% where purchaser is an existing shareholder; exempt for gifts to spouse/adult children/parents and testamentary transfers. Proprietary lease amendment adopted December 21, 2006
- Financing
- Capped at 50% of purchase price; corporation signs only the AZTECH form of recognition agreement
- Subletting
- Not documented as a permitted use; house rules require board notice/approval for guests staying 30+ days and prohibit generating income from guests
- Pets
- 2011 handbook permits dogs, cats, birds; max 2 dogs and/or cats per apartment; board registration required; $150 annual fee per dog; 75-lb full-grown weight limit; named breed exclusions; pets barred from the garden. An earlier corporation resale packet stated no dogs permitted — policy liberalized, confirm current rule
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 2011 handbook; 2006 flip tax amendment). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
Montague Terrace is one block long. It runs from Montague Street south to Remsen, its west side backing directly onto the Promenade, and it was cut through the former Pierrepont estate that Hezekiah Beers Pierrepont began subdividing in 1816. The row houses that give the street its name went up in the 1870s. 2 Montague Terrace is the apartment house that anchors its north end, and it is one of a small number of Brooklyn Heights buildings that has been a cooperative since the day it opened.
That distinction does most of the work in understanding the building. The 1927 corporation was assembled by four families — Reimer, Sloan, Mudge and Hume — who commissioned John B. Snook Sons and then sold most of the apartments off plan, which is why the layouts vary floor to floor: purchasers moved walls before the steel was fully clad. At the outset several shareholders owned entire floors. There is no sponsor, no conversion-era eviction or non-eviction plan, no unsold-shares overhang, and none of the 1980s paperwork that sets the terms at most Heights co-ops — only a century of continuous shareholder governance, and a rulebook that reads accordingly.
The building's history is also a record of the Promenade's construction seen from the inside. The co-op's house history — written in June 1974 by two shareholders and still carried as an appendix to the current handbook — records that roughly 60 feet of the corporation's rear property was taken by eminent domain when Robert Moses's cantilevered highway and esplanade went in around 1950, condemning the building's rock garden, rose garden and about fourteen mature trees, and leaving a grey concrete retaining wall that shareholders spent years replanting. The same history describes a coal railcar and track on the north side of the building, engineered by a resident so off-season coal could be moved in from the sidewalk after the esplanade cut off the old coal bins; conversion from coal to gas came around 1954. The automatic elevator dates to 1956, installed after a building-employees' strike during which shareholders ran the cars, shoveled the coal and carried the garbage themselves.
For buyers, the translation is an intact 1927 Colonial Revival cooperative on the most protected block in the district, with an attended lobby, a live-in superintendent and a private garden, governed by rules that assume long tenure and price it in. For sellers, the address and the pedigree are the pitch, and the financing cap and shareholder-consent requirement are the constraint to plan around from day one.
Architecture and unit composition
Snook Sons built a steel-framed, brick-and-marble apartment house of twelve stories in a restrained Colonial idiom, with soundproofed floors and fireproof construction that were advertised features in 1927. Because most apartments were customized before completion, the plans do not repeat cleanly: the A and B lines carry the floors, several upper floors have been combined into AB residences, and a penthouse sits at the top with terrace exposure. Apartments retain the prewar interior vocabulary the era produced — original wood flooring, door and window casings, and picture rails survive in unrenovated units. West-facing rooms look across the Promenade walkway toward the harbor; rear rooms face the building's own garden.
Terraces on select apartments are treated in the house rules as limited common elements: shareholders maintain the surface and keep the drains clear, the corporation is responsible for waterproofing and flashing, the maximum load is 20 pounds per square foot, permanent planters require engineered drawings, and grilling is prohibited under the City fire code. Twenty-one apartments across twelve floors is a low density even by Heights standards, and it is the most reliable predictor of how the building feels day to day.
Building operations
Montague Terrace Corporation runs a full-service operation at boutique scale: a staffed lobby, a live-in superintendent whose apartment sits on the basement level, a separate service elevator for deliveries and moves, and a union labor contract the co-op has historically negotiated in tandem with the neighboring cooperative at 1 Pierrepont Street. Capital practice is conventional for a 1927 masonry building — the corporation has replaced boilers, modernized the elevator and addressed penthouse-level water infiltration in past cycles, and FISP/LL11 façade work is the recurring item to trace through recent financial statements and board minutes.
The co-op's 2011 shareholder handbook documents Halstead Management Co. as managing agent; management relationships change, and the current agent should be confirmed at offer stage. Diligence here rewards attention to the handbook itself, which is unusually detailed and functions as the operative rulebook alongside the proprietary lease.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Nov 12, 2024 | 4B | $4,900,000 |
| Nov 21, 2024 | 4A | $2,350,000 |
| Aug 24, 2020 | 3B | $4,250,000 |
| Sep 17, 2013 | 2B | $2,800,000 |
| Jul 23, 2012 | 5B | $2,950,000 |
| Mar 23, 2012 | 7A | $1,400,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00208-0508) 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
Model the 50 percent financing cap first. Everything else about this purchase is downstream of it. Confirm your lender accepts the AZTECH recognition agreement and that your structure works at half leverage before you spend money on diligence.
The two-thirds shareholder consent is real and takes time. Board approval alone does not close this deal. Build the consent period into the contract, and expect the seller's customary introduction reception to be part of the process rather than a formality.
Confirm the pet rule in writing. The 2011 handbook permits registered dogs within limits; an older corporation resale packet said dogs were not permitted. If a dog matters to you, get the current answer from the board before contract.
Ask what the last capital cycle covered. A 1927 steel-and-masonry building at twelve stories carries façade, elevator, roof and terrace-waterproofing obligations. Recent financial statements and board minutes will show the pace.
The flip tax is yours. Two percent of the price is a purchaser obligation at this building. Price it into your offer.
What to know if you’re selling
Qualify buyers on the cap before showings, not after. The financing limit disqualifies a large share of the district's buyer pool. Screening early protects your marketing time and avoids the failed-approval cycle.
Lead with what the building actually is. An original 1927 cooperative — never a rental, never converted — by John B. Snook Sons, twenty-one apartments in twelve stories, on the Promenade row. Most Heights listings cannot make any of those claims.
Document the apartment's history. In a building where layouts were customized before completion and floors have been combined, the specific unit's plan, share count and alteration record are the price-makers.
Sequence the shareholder consent. Give the corporation and your attorney the runway the two-thirds requirement needs, and treat the introduction reception as a selling opportunity rather than an obstacle.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 2 Montague Terrace, also evaluate:
- 10 Montague Terrace — the townhouse-scale cooperative down the same one-block street; the closest possible location comparable
- 1 Pierrepont Street — the neighboring prewar cooperative with which Montague Terrace has historically negotiated its labor contract
- 129 Columbia Heights — Promenade-edge prewar co-op with a similar exposure argument
- 160 Columbia Heights — larger full-service prewar co-op on the harbor side of the district
- 62 Montague Street — prewar co-op two blocks east on the Montague corridor
- 65 Montague Street — moderate-scale prewar co-op peer near the Heights Casino
- 100 Remsen Street — full-service prewar cooperative on the parallel block south
- 2 Grace Court — large elevator co-op on the district's quiet southwest cul-de-sac
- 115 Willow Street — small prewar co-op on the district's other premium residential street
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.
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