264 Cumberland Street (The Sanctuary)
264–266 Cumberland Street, Brooklyn, NY 11205
Fort Greene, Brooklyn
BBL 3021017503 · BIN 3058985
- Year built
- 1860
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 13
- Floors
- 4
- Landmark
- Designated
- Subletting
- Condominium form - board holds a right of first refusal; sale and lease agreements must carry the by-laws' prescribed subordination language (Sections 7.2, 7.3, 7.5, 7.9). Minimum lease term not documented
- Pets
- No bird, reptile or animal permitted unless expressly permitted in writing by the Condominium Board or Managing Agent; consent revocable at their sole discretion; animals carried or leashed in public portions
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 2008 plan; 2019 by-law amendment; purchase application current). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
Thirteen apartments, two buildings, one entrance, and a chapel with floors inserted into it. The Sanctuary is the most literal building in Fort Greene, and the conversion arithmetic in its offering plan explains more about what it is like to live there than any description of finishes could.
The pieces are a small neo-Gothic chapel at 266 Cumberland Street, built around 1880 as a one-story structure over a cellar, and a three-story building next door at 264, built around 1860. The LPC's Fort Greene Historic District records attribute them to the Evangelical Lutheran Church of the Holy Trinity of Brooklyn, and the 1978 designation report describes the pair as a small Lutheran chapel — by then St. John's R.C. Chapel — with a priests' residence beside it. Even the acquisition is contested: Brownstoner's history of the block notes that the LPC's report has the congregation buying the land in 1895 with no standing structure mentioned, while the Brooklyn Daily Eagle reported in April 1897 that the church was bought intact. The property moved to a German Lutheran congregation in 1915 and to the Roman Catholic Diocese of Brooklyn in 1919, and stayed in religious use for most of a century.
In 2008 the sponsor, 264 Cumberland LLC, converted both buildings into a single thirteen-unit condominium. The two halves were treated very differently. At 264 the work was additive — a new floor on top and a rear addition, yielding six apartments. At 266, the chapel, the plan reads: "266 Cumberland will be altered by the addition of 2 floors within the existing structure." Seven apartments were built inside the chapel's volume. That is why the units in the 266 half are the ones people photograph: the original openings, the height, and the church's own geometry are still doing the work, with new floor plates threaded through them. Seven of the thirteen apartments across both buildings carry terrace, balcony or patio space as limited common elements.
The two buildings function as one property: a single main entrance, shared mechanical rooms in the basement of 264, one set of common charges. Scarano Architect, PLLC certified the floor plans in August 2008; the first closing was that October.
The Fort Greene context is strong and simple. The building sits a block from Fort Greene Park — thirty acres whose grounds were laid out in 1867 by Olmsted and Vaux, crowned by the Prison Ship Martyrs' Monument — inside the historic district designated in September 1978, and within walking distance of BAM, the Brooklyn Cultural District and the Atlantic Terminal transit concentration. What it offers that the district's row-house co-ops do not is condominium ownership: right of first refusal instead of board approval, ordinary financing, and a leasing framework a co-op board would not permit.
Architecture and unit composition
The two structures read as a matched pair from the street, neo-Gothic in the LPC's classification, and as very different buildings from the inside. At 264 Cumberland, six apartments occupy an 1860s three-story building with a floor added above and an addition at the rear — conventional apartment geometry, with the new construction carrying the top. At 266, seven apartments occupy a chapel: one original story, two floors inserted, and the church's fenestration and volume governing what each unit looks like. Units in that half are not interchangeable with anything else in the neighborhood, and they are not interchangeable with each other either.
Schedule A identifies which seven of the thirteen units carry terrace, balcony or patio space, and the floor plans describe the limited common element allocated to each. The offering plan's footnotes carry two cautions worth repeating to any buyer: bedroom and bathroom counts were assigned by the sponsor's architect in accordance with new-construction practice and do not necessarily match the zoning room count or the Real Estate Board of New York method, and certain units contain home offices that may not be used as legal bedrooms. Square footages were measured from exterior walls and wall centerlines, so usable area is meaningfully less than the Schedule A figure. Inspect the unit.
Each apartment is individually metered for electricity and gas, and unit owners pay directly for gas, heat and the hot and cold water they consume; building water sits in common charges. That structure keeps common charges lower than a comparable building with central heat, and it puts more of the monthly cost inside the owner's own control.
Building operations
The Sanctuary is a small, self-contained condominium with no staff and no amenity program — the operating model is a managing agent, a board of managers, and a set of house rules that has been amended as the building has aged. The current purchase application runs through Choice New York Management; the 2019 by-law amendment was executed care of Goldin Management, so confirm the current agent early.
The house rules are more specific than most. Pets require express written permission from the board or managing agent, revocable at will. There is no barbecuing anywhere on the property, including on the limited common element terraces. Sound equipment and instruments are barred between 11:00 p.m. and 9:00 a.m. (live practice from 10:00 p.m.), construction is confined to weekdays 9:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and gatherings of eight or more must be posted 24 hours in advance, with a $100 fine for failing to post or for disturbing residents overnight. In July 2019 the board added a formal smoking policy conforming to the city's Administrative Code.
For capital diligence, treat this as what it physically is: two 19th-century masonry structures, one of them substantially rebuilt internally and topped with new construction in 2008. Ask for the reserve position, several years of financial statements, the roof and façade history on both buildings, and the status of the 2008-era systems — a conversion nearly two decades old is entering the window where first-generation mechanicals come due.
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 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 |
|---|---|---|
| Jul 30, 2021 | 5 | $1,775,000 |
| Jun 28, 2021 | 8 | $1,060,000 |
| Feb 8, 2021 | 3 | $1,035,000 |
| Apr 28, 2020 | 11 | $1,600,000 |
| Jan 10, 2020 | 7 | $1,355,823 |
| Nov 25, 2019 | 1 | $1,100,000 |
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 3-02101-7503) 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
Know which building you are buying in. Six units sit in the 1860 building at 264, raised by a floor and extended at the rear. Seven sit inside the 1880 chapel at 266, on floor plates inserted into the original volume. They live differently.
Verify the room count yourself. The plan states expressly that bedroom and bathroom counts follow new-construction practice rather than the zoning or REBNY method, and that some units include home offices that cannot be used as legal bedrooms.
Pull the current tax bill. J-51 was applied for at conversion and the plan's projection is now a historical document. Model carrying cost against today's bill for your unit.
Read the house rules before you offer, and ask about first-generation systems. Pets by written consent only, no barbecuing at all, quiet hours from 11:00 p.m., gatherings of eight or more requiring 24-hour notice. The conversion completed in 2008, so roof, façade, mechanicals and the chapel's structural interventions all warrant direct questions now.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the building's history and let the space follow. A Lutheran chapel of about 1880, a Roman Catholic chapel after 1919, converted in 2008 inside the Fort Greene Historic District — that is a listing narrative with documentation behind it.
Say which half the unit is in, and say it first. Buyers self-select between the chapel units and the 264 apartments. Making them guess costs showings.
Foreground the outdoor space. Seven of thirteen units carry terrace, balcony or patio as limited common elements. Where a unit has one, it is a primary value driver in a district where private outdoor space is scarce.
Be transparent about taxes, and emphasize the ownership form. Provide the current bill rather than a plan-era J-51 projection; sophisticated buyers run the numbers themselves and reward clean disclosure. Then make the structural case — condominium, right of first refusal, ordinary financing and a leasing framework, in a district otherwise dominated by co-ops with board approval and sublet restrictions.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering The Sanctuary, also evaluate:
- 58 Strong Place (The Landmark at Strong Place) — Cobble Hill's converted-church condominium; the closest building-type comparable in brownstone Brooklyn
- 75 Greene Avenue — boutique Fort Greene condominium; the neighborhood's small-building condo alternative
- 415 Carlton Avenue (Fort Greene Partnership Homes) — Fort Greene for-sale stock a few blocks south, at comparable scale
- 199 State Street (The Lookout Hill Condominium) — boutique historic-district condominium in Brooklyn Heights; a useful price-per-square-foot benchmark
- 60 South Oxford Street — the co-op alternative inside the same historic district, at the same small scale
- 149 Lafayette Avenue — ten-unit Fort Greene Historic District co-op; the ownership-form comparison in one decision
Considering a move at The Sanctuary?
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 The Sanctuary 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.