28 Old Fulton Street (The Eagle Warehouse)
28 Old Fulton Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
Brooklyn Heights, Brooklyn
BBL 3002020001 · BIN 3001475
- Year built
- 1893
- Type
- Cooperative
- Units
- 85
- Floors
- 8
- Landmark
- Designated
- Pets
- Not publicly documented — confirm against the current house rules during diligence
- Subletting
- Consent of 75% of board or holders of 75% of outstanding shares required (proprietary lease as filed, 1983)
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 1983 plan as filed). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
The Eagle Warehouse is the building that anchors Fulton Ferry — the small landmarked district at the water's edge where Brooklyn began, between the Brooklyn Bridge and the foot of Brooklyn Heights. Frank Freeman designed it in 1893–1894 for the Eagle Warehouse & Storage Company as a fireproof fortress for furniture, silverware, and documents, and he gave a utilitarian program the full Romanesque Revival treatment: load-bearing brick walls, a monumental Roman arch over the entrance with the company's name in bronze, deep window reveals that read as arrow slits, and a machicolated parapet that makes the roofline a castle silhouette. Architectural historians rank Freeman as Brooklyn's most gifted architect of the era, and the Eagle Warehouse sits with the Brooklyn Fire Headquarters and the Herman Behr Mansion among his defining works.
The site's history runs deeper than the building. The warehouse rose on the former offices of the Brooklyn Daily Eagle, the newspaper Walt Whitman edited from 1846 to 1848, and Freeman incorporated the old Eagle pressroom into the rear and side sections of the structure — the warehouse took both its site and its name from the paper. From 1904 to 1928, Brooklyn Law School occupied part of the building. The LPC designated the surrounding Fulton Ferry Historic District on June 28, 1977, a dozen years after Brooklyn Heights became the city's first historic district, and the Eagle Warehouse is the district's largest and most architecturally commanding building. A point of precision that matters for diligence and for marketing: the building is protected as a contributing structure within the Fulton Ferry Historic District, not as an individually designated New York City landmark, and the district also carries a 1974 National Register listing.
The residential chapter began when the sponsor acquired the property in September 1979 and converted the warehouse to apartments in November 1980 — early in the wave that would later transform DUMBO's Gair buildings, which makes the Eagle Warehouse one of the first major industrial-to-residential conversions on the Brooklyn waterfront. Brooklyn architect Bernard Rothzeid, founding principal of the firm that continues as RKTB Architects, led the design; because the warehouse's floor plates were deep and its windows deliberately small, Rothzeid opened the center of the building into a skylit atrium descending to the ground floor, bringing light into the interior apartments. The cooperative offering plan followed in July 1983 as a non-eviction plan, allocating 7,772 shares to 84 apartments under Eagle Tenants Corp.
The result is a genuinely unusual asset class for Brooklyn Heights: a landmarked-district loft conversion with co-op economics. The apartment stock includes simplexes, duplexes, and two penthouses with exclusive roof areas, and the penthouse behind the clock face — with the clock as its window over the Brooklyn Bridge and the East River — is one of the most photographed apartments in the borough. For buyers who want prewar Brooklyn Heights character but loft-conversion volume and masonry, the Eagle Warehouse occupies a lane that the brownstone-scale co-ops on the Heights plateau and the newer condominiums along the waterfront do not.
Architecture and unit composition
Freeman's warehouse logic drives the apartment architecture. The building is load-bearing masonry with heavy timber and iron structure, so apartments carry the conversion signatures of the type: exposed brick, substantial wall depth at the window reveals, and irregular, apartment-specific layouts rather than repeating tower lines. The offering plan's apartment schedule runs from studios and one-bedrooms through duplex (bi-level) units, topped by penthouses PHA and PHB, each with an allocated exclusive-use roof area. The clock-face penthouse is the trophy: the parapet clock, set between the brick corbels that carry the machicolated cornice, serves as the apartment's principal window facing the bridge and the harbor.
Because the original windows are punched into fortress walls rather than curtain-glazed, light strategy matters when evaluating specific units — the Rothzeid atrium feeds the interior-facing apartments, while the perimeter units take the deep-set openings over Old Fulton Street, the side streets, and the water. Total net building area is approximately 155,600 square feet per the offering plan's architect, and the street level includes an approximately 3,070-square-foot commercial space (plus cellar area) that the plan placed under a 90-year master lease at conversion — a structural fact of the co-op's income and governance that diligence should review.
Building operations
Eagle Tenants Corp. has operated the building since the 1984-era closing under the 1983 plan. The offering plan documents a resident superintendent occupying unallocated apartment 2J and a central laundry arrangement dating to the conversion; the building's current staffing model, service contracts, and any capital program (façade work under FISP/LL11 is a recurring reality for 1890s load-bearing masonry of this scale) should be reviewed in board minutes and financials during diligence. The Roebling Research Library holds the offering plan, amendments, bylaws, alteration agreement, purchase application, and historical financial statements for the building.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| Oct 6, 2025 | 7M8M | $1,810,000 |
| Apr 23, 2025 | 6F | $2,115,000 |
| Apr 22, 2025 | 3E | $2,025,000 |
| Mar 21, 2024 | THF | $1,212,000 |
| Mar 21, 2024 | 6M | $630,000 |
| Oct 19, 2023 | 5H | $1,100,000 |
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00202-0001) 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
The landmark protection is district-level. The building is a contributing structure of the Fulton Ferry Historic District (LPC, June 28, 1977), not an individual landmark. Exterior work — windows included — runs through the LPC, which protects the architecture that supports value.
Light varies more than in any conventional co-op. Deep floor plates and fortress windows mean the difference between an atrium-facing unit, a street-facing unit, and a water-facing upper unit is substantial. Evaluate the specific line at multiple times of day.
The sublet rule is unusually strict as filed. A 75 percent board or shareholder consent threshold is a different regime from standard board approval. If flexibility matters to your plans, confirm current policy before contract.
Understand the commercial master lease. The 90-year master lease on the street-level space is part of the co-op's financial structure; review its terms and remaining span with your attorney.
The location is waterfront-adjacent, not subway-adjacent. Fulton Ferry sits below the Heights escarpment at Brooklyn Bridge Park's northern end; the High Street A/C station is the practical connection, up the hill toward Cadman Plaza.
What to know if you’re selling
Market the building, then the apartment. Frank Freeman authorship, the Whitman-era Eagle site history, the 1977 district designation, and the clock make the Eagle Warehouse one of the few Brooklyn co-ops with a genuine architectural-narrative premium. Use it.
Position against both comp sets. The building competes with Heights prewar co-ops on location and with DUMBO loft condominiums on character and volume; pricing should reference both, in per-room co-op terms against the former and character-adjusted terms against the latter.
Be precise about landmark status. Sophisticated buyers will check; "within the Fulton Ferry Historic District" is accurate, "individually landmarked" is not.
Disclose the policy framework early. The strict sublet threshold and any current board financing standards shape the buyer pool; transparent positioning avoids failed applications.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering 28 Old Fulton Street, also evaluate:
- 8 Old Fulton Street (Brooklyn City Railroad Company Building) — the Eagle Warehouse's 1861 Fulton Ferry neighbor; an 11-unit boutique co-op conversion in the same district
- 1 Main Street (The Clock Tower) — DUMBO's reinforced-concrete Gair clocktower conversion; the condominium counterpart to the Eagle's clock premise
- 30 Main Street (The Sweeney Building) — DUMBO loft condominium conversion at comparable scale
- 37 Bridge Street (Kirkman Lofts) — former soap factory conversion; DUMBO-edge loft alternative
- 168 Plymouth Street — artist-loft-era DUMBO conversion with comparable masonry character
- 60 Pineapple Street — fellow Heights conversion co-op with loft-scale open layouts in the historic district proper
- 57 Montague Street (The Breukelen) — classic full-scale Heights prewar co-op for buyers weighing conventional prewar against loft conversion
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.
Considering a move at The Eagle Warehouse?
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 Eagle Warehouse 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.