315 St Johns Place

The building is 100 feet wide on St Johns Place and 141 feet deep. That depth is typical of a courtyard or light-well plan with several apartment lines per floor. ACRIS designations run from A to H on each floor, consistent with eight apartments on a typical floor across six floors. Listing and DOB records show at least one top-floor duplex with a penthouse level.

DOB filings show steady apartment renovation: kitchen and bath work, partition changes, and a 2014 interior rebuild of apartment 6C that included a stair. Since 2021, owners of several apartments have installed ductless heat-pump systems, which gives those lines cooling and supplemental heat independent of the building's gas-fired plant. In 2025 the corporation obtained approval to install a chair lift and rebuild the interior stair at the lobby, adding a lift over the entrance steps.

Underlying mortgage. In October 2025 the corporation recorded a $3.5 million first mortgage and a $500,000 credit line with National Cooperative Bank. It then paid off the Valley National Bank loan it had taken in 2020, a $1.5 million, ten-year loan at 3.3 percent fixed with a $400,000 line, per the 2019 audited statements. The new loan is more than twice the size of the one it replaced, and its timing lines up with the 2025 exterior permits. Ask for the rate, maturity and amortization of the 2025 loan and how the proceeds are being spent. They are the biggest single factor in maintenance for the next decade.

Façade and roof. Local Law 11, the city's Façade Inspection Safety Program, requires periodic inspections of taller buildings. Reports use three ratings: safe; "safe with a repair and maintenance program" (SWARMP), meaning conditions to fix within the cycle; and unsafe. The building was rated SWARMP in Cycle 6 (2008), safe in Cycle 7 (2012), SWARMP in Cycle 8 (2019) and safe in Cycle 9 (2022). DOB NOW shows a façade repair permit in 2024 and, in the summer of 2025, permits for façade and roof repairs, a suspended scaffold, a pipe scaffold and a sidewalk shed. Exterior work was active through 2025, ahead of the next inspection cycle.

Assessments. The corporation levied a $374,204 capital assessment in 2018, payable in a lump sum, three installments or 24 monthly payments, per the audited statements. As of April 2000 an ongoing security assessment paid for an evening doorman from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. Ask whether any assessment is running now.

The rooftop telecom site has been removed. For more than two decades the corporation leased roof space to Sprint for a cellular installation, about $29,000 of revenue in 2019. A November 2022 DOB NOW filing covered decommissioning that site and removing the antennas, radio units and grade-level equipment platform, and the Department of Buildings issued a letter of completion for that work in July 2023. The completed equipment removal does not establish when rent ended or whether another agreement replaced it; confirm the lease closeout and current receipts in the financial statements before budgeting that income.

Heating plant. The plan called for gas-fired, master-metered heat and hot water. The boiler and burner were replaced in 2009.

Operating shape. Real estate taxes were about $386,000 in 2019, close to half of operating expenses, per the audited statements. The corporation has used an engineering firm to estimate some future major repairs but has no full reserve study.

J-51 history. J-51 is a city tax benefit for rehabilitation. It combines an exemption on added assessed value with an abatement, a credit of part of the certified cost against taxes. DOF records three grants on this lot, none active:

• 1977: A 90 percent abatement on $29,800 of certified cost, credited through the early 1980s.
• 1989 (the conversion renovation): A 90 percent abatement on about $818,600 of certified cost. The exemption phased out after the 2002 tax year, and abatement credits ended in the 2007 tax year.
• 2004: A 90 percent abatement on $16,000 of certified cost. Exhausted in the 2014 tax year.

Primary-residence shareholders receive the city's co-op/condo abatement.

• Flip tax: A capital reserve replenishment fee of 1.5 percent of the sale price, due at closing. The application does not say which side pays. Confirm with the managing agent.
• Transfer and application fees: A $1,000 transfer fee plus any attorney or professional costs to the corporation, a $250 review fee, and refundable move-in and move-out deposits with per-day moving fees.
• Subletting (policy effective June 14, 2010): The owner must occupy the apartment as a primary residence for one year first. Sublets are capped at three consecutive years, followed by two years of owner occupancy or vacancy before a new request. Sublet fees are 10, 18 and 25 percent of monthly maintenance in years one through three. Summer sublets of up to three months carry their own fee schedule. Normally one sublease is approved per calendar year.
• Pets: Small domestic animals or birds are permitted. Pets may not be walked in public areas.
• Alterations: Buyers must sign an assumption of any existing alteration agreement for the apartment. Sellers who made no alterations must sign a notarized statement saying so.
• Roof: No resident access.
• Smoking: Prohibited in all common areas, on balconies and fire escapes, and within 15 feet of entrances and windows, per the building smoking policy.
• Financing ceiling, pied-à-terre, guarantors, trust/LLC purchases: Not documented. Confirm with the managing agent.

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. Most recent trades (2026 to date) cleared a median $876/sf (floor-adjusted) across 1 sale. Floor-adjusted means each sale is restated to a constant mix of floors, so the figure can differ from the plain median of the sales listed above. Median listing discount 1.8% from the last ask — a recurring negotiation gap worth pricing into any offer or listing strategy.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-01171-0002). 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.

Get the 2025 refinancing terms first. The corporation more than doubled its mortgage in October 2025. Find out the rate, the maturity, how much of the line is drawn and what the proceeds are paying for. Then ask whether maintenance has already been adjusted for it.

Ask about the 2025 exterior work. Get the scope, the cost, whether it is complete and whether an assessment comes with it.

Plan around the sublet rules. The policy is clearly written and moderate: one year of occupancy first, then up to three years with rising fees. It works for owners who may relocate later. It will not support a buy-to-rent plan.

Price in the reserve fee. 1.5 percent at closing, plus the $1,000 transfer fee. Settle in the contract who pays it.

Lead with the location and the renovation history. A block from Grand Army Plaza, a full sponsor renovation in 1987, and no Landmarks review for exterior work.

Put the capital answers in the package. The 2025 loan, the 2025 façade and roof permits and the Cycle 9 safe rating are the questions buyers' attorneys will ask first.

Know your alteration agreement. Your buyer has to assume it. Have it, and your sign-offs, ready before the application goes in.

If you're considering 315 St Johns Place, also evaluate:

• 295 St Johns Place (The Mews at Grand Army Plaza): the 1923 courtyard co-op next door, from the same sponsor and the same renovation period
• Butler Plaza (44 Butler Place): a 1925 building on the same tax block, gut-renovated as condominiums in 1986–87
• 418 St Johns Place: a 1924 six-story co-op on the next St Johns Place block east
• 50 Plaza Street East: a 1925 co-op on the Grand Army Plaza arc
• 20 Plaza Street East: a 1940 Art Deco co-op on the arc with 100 apartments
• 1 Plaza Street West: a prewar tower across the plaza in Park Slope
• 230 Park Place: an elevator co-op inside the historic district. The landmarked comparison
• The Abraham Lincoln (61 Eastern Parkway): a 1930 six-story parkway co-op a few blocks south