235 Lincoln Place

Six stories of face brick with masonry backup on a 13,668-square-foot lot, holding roughly 57,800 square feet — a built FAR near 4.2 where the block's R7B contextual zoning would allow 3.0 today. The first-floor slab is fireproof, with non-fireproof construction above and fireproof corridors, a common 1930s Brooklyn specification.

The 1979 plan lays out eight apartment lines, A through H, running one to six rooms. The A line carries five-room apartments on floors two through six, with the ground-floor A unit configured as the professional office and apartment; the C and E lines run five rooms; F and G run four; B and H run three; the D line runs two. That distribution puts most of the inventory in the one- and two-bedroom range with a meaningful minority of larger floor-throughs, and the value spread inside the building is driven by line, floor and renovation state rather than by view — this is a six-story building on a rowhouse block, so nothing here has an outlook to sell.

Interior finishes as inspected in 1979 were wood floors in the master rooms, plaster walls and ceilings, ceramic-tile baths with glazed-tile wainscot, stall showers in the smaller lines and tubs with shower bars in the larger ones. Heat is a cellar steam plant distributed by room convectors; there is no central air, and window units have always been the answer. There is a mail chute in the corridors and an incinerator closet with a slop sink on every floor — the incinerator itself was converted to a compactor under a 1972 building notice.

The practical constraint on the building is circulation. One passenger elevator, no freight car and no service entrance means every sofa, refrigerator and moving crew uses the front door and the single cab. Schedule accordingly and expect the superintendent to be involved.

235 Lincoln Place Housing Corp. has run the building since the December 1979 closing. The records reviewed describe professional management and a superintendent living in the building; confirm the current staffing and management arrangements. The statements on file report labor-related costs and real estate taxes at roughly 55 percent of general and administrative expense, but the reporting years are not identified here; obtain current expense figures. Those statements describe no commercial income and a small laundry-income line; the building has no garage. Confirm the present revenue mix and budget rather than treating historical income as steady.

The corporation refinanced in June 2017, paying off a $1,500,000 National Cooperative Bank mortgage at 6.14 percent and a line of credit, and closing a $2,500,000 ten-year loan at 3.75 percent with a $1,000,000 line of credit. A $26,510 prepayment penalty was paid on the way out. That refinancing roughly doubled the corporation's debt and left it with cash on hand approaching $1 million at year-end 2017, which funded the capital program that followed. A buyer today should ask directly what has replaced that facility, since a ten-year term taken in 2017 matures inside any reasonable holding period.

The financial statements on file describe entrance and sidewalk replacement, tree guards, common-area LED lighting, and related architect and engineering fees; the reporting years for those items are not identified here. At that reporting date, the auditors noted no governing-document requirement for funded reserves and no reserve study. Neither observation proves that no reserves exist today. Obtain current cash and reserve balances, a dated capital plan, façade condition reports and elevator history. For this reported six-story building, verify any FISP applicability from the actual height and filings rather than assuming a required cycle.

Smoking: Prohibited in all common areas under the board's May 18, 2018 policy, adopted in compliance with Local Law 147. Shareholders whose apartment smoke permeates common areas must install air purifiers at their own expense. The board has stated in writing that it asks prospective purchasers about smoking status and takes the answer into account, and that it has considered — without yet adopting — a fine schedule and an in-apartment prohibition, which would require a by-law amendment. Sellers are advised to incorporate the policy into the contract of sale.

Pets: The plan-filed rule requires revocable written permission and carried or leashed animals in common areas; the separate Research Desk record dated 2018 reports no dogs or cats. Obtain the operative rules and valid amendments to reconcile the accounts; neither is independently verified as current.

Subletting: Board consent is required under the proprietary lease. The July 2026 management-attributed schedule gives a shareholder fee of 20 percent of annual rent; verify the operative rate and term limits against current documents.

Alterations: Board approval through the corporation's alteration agreement. Anything touching the exterior envelope — windows above all — additionally requires Landmarks Preservation Commission approval.

Financing, flip tax and pied-à-terre policy: Not documented in the materials on file. Confirm each against the current purchase application and house rules during diligence.

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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2025): a median $1,065/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2026. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-01059-0050). 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; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Read the smoking policy before anything else. It is the most specific and most recently documented rule in the building, it covers all common areas including the sidewalk at the door, and the board has said it weighs smoking status when reviewing applicants.

Underwrite the windows. Original 1937 steel casements inside a designated district are a maintenance and approvals problem as well as a feature. Ask what the board's replacement or restoration position is, what it has cost, and whether a program is pending.

Ask what replaced the 2017 mortgage. A $2,500,000 ten-year loan taken in June 2017 matures in June 2027 on its original schedule, unless it has since been refinanced or amended. Get the current debt terms, the balance, the maturity date and any refinancing commitment in writing.

Separate the abatement assessment from a capital assessment. The assessment line in this building has historically offset the co-op tax abatement pass-through. Confirm which you are being quoted, and confirm the specific apartment's abatement eligibility.

Plan the move. One passenger elevator, no freight car, no service entrance. Deliveries and moves run through the front door on the superintendent's schedule.

Lead with the casements and the entrance. The steel windows and the fanlighted Colonial Revival doorway are what distinguish this building from the 1920s apartment houses on the same block. Photograph both.

State the date. The building can read as 1920s. It is 1937, which means larger openings, a fireproof first-floor slab and a plan drawn after the neighborhood's rowhouse era had fully closed — say so in the first paragraph of the listing.

Disclose the smoking policy up front and put it in the contract. The board's own memo instructs shareholders to incorporate it into any sale or rental agreement.

Show the abatement math. A carrying-cost quote that nets the abatement credit against the assessment is a materially better number than the gross one, and it is defensible from the audited financials.

Assemble the capital record early. The historical statements’ lack of a reserve-funding requirement does not establish zero reserves. Provide current balances, any reserve study, the capital plan, façade reports appropriate to this building and current mortgage terms; document preparation does not guarantee a shorter closing.

If you're considering 235 Lincoln Place, also evaluate:

• 225 Lincoln Place — the wide 1923 Caughey & Evans co-op a few doors east on the same block, with a documented flip tax and sublet framework
• 209 Lincoln Place — the ten-story 1928 elevator co-op on the same block, with its own parking lot
• 220 Berkeley Place — the 1955 postwar co-op one block south, converted by the same two sponsors
• 140 8th Avenue — the 1936 Art Deco co-op at Carroll Street; the closest contemporary in the district
• 814 Carroll Street — 1950 co-op a few blocks south; the postwar alternative
• 39 Plaza Street West — Rosario Candela's 1926 tower on Grand Army Plaza; the full-service prewar alternative nearby
• 20 Plaza Street East — 1940 co-op on Grand Army Plaza; larger and more service-heavy
• 40 Prospect Park West — 1942 park-front co-op just outside the district line
• 343 4th Avenue — the 2006 Fourth Avenue condominium; the condo-ownership alternative in the same neighborhood