Clinton Mews (372 DeKalb Avenue)

The lot is 200 feet wide on DeKalb Avenue and 222.58 feet deep, with a building footprint of roughly 200 by 91 feet and about 89,420 square feet of residential floor area. That leaves more than half the lot behind the building, which is where the landscaped courtyard and the parking sit. Zoning is R7-1. The Department of Finance records five stories; the corporation's audited statements say six, and the house rules give roof rights to sixth-floor residents. The certificate of occupancy is the document that settles it, and it should be pulled for any transaction.

The offering plan's Schedule A shows the mix in period room counts: 3½-room apartments with one or two baths and 4½-room apartments with one-and-a-half or two baths, with share allocations running from roughly 660 to 1,256 and several units flagged as duplexes. In current language that is a building of one-bedrooms and two-bedrooms, with a handful of duplex layouts and, at the top, apartments with private roof access. Because the plans came out of a factory floor plate rather than a row-house or a corridor slab, the variation between lines is wider than the room counts suggest — ceiling heights, window placement, exposed structure and the position of the light shaft all differ.

What survives from the factory is the selling point: brick bearing walls left exposed, interior brick arches, and heavy timber. The conversion added thermopane windows over time — the corporation capitalized window work as recently as 2007 — and the house rules now require window air conditioners to sit in sleeves painted to match the building's existing green, with no unit permitted to penetrate the façade. That is a small rule with a large effect on how the building looks from DeKalb Avenue, and it is enforced.

The operating profile is unusual for a 78-apartment cooperative, and every line of it is worth understanding before you underwrite a purchase.

Heat is private. Individual gas-fired boilers serve each apartment. The corporation's common-area heating cost was budgeted at a few thousand dollars a year. Boilers were replaced building-wide in 2005–2006 at $5,500 per apartment, financed over five years at 8 percent for shareholders who elected it; the assessment receivable was still running down years later. Under the house rules, boiler repair sits with the shareholder, alongside plaster, faucets, appliances, window panes, fixtures and circuits.

Electricity, internet and cable run through maintenance. The corporation buys power in bulk and bills shareholders on the monthly maintenance statement — 2019 statements show $99,900 of electricity cost against $63,247 of electric income — and carries a bulk telephone and internet line of $50,203. A buyer comparing this building's maintenance to a neighbor's is comparing a bundled bill to an unbundled one.

Security is staffed and expensive. The corporation spent $168,349 on security services in 2019 — more than $2,100 per apartment — for a staffed desk where visitors sign a log and guards may ask for photo identification. Front-door keys are stamped "do not duplicate," and duplicating one carries a $500 fine.

The parking lot is leased, not owned. Since January 1, 2012 the corporation has subleased the entire parking lot from the sponsor through December 31, 2086, paying $4,750 a month in 2019 against $68,068 of parking income. That is a seventy-five-year sublease from a related party, and while the economics were positive in 2019, a buyer should read the sublease terms rather than assume the lot is a corporate asset.

The mortgage is current and self-liquidating. On August 25, 2016 the corporation refinanced with a $3,000,000 first mortgage from Astoria Federal Savings Bank at 3.25 percent, payable at $21,080 monthly in principal and interest and self-liquidating over fifteen years — a maturity in 2031 on that schedule. The refinancing included a $250,000 line of credit, of which $139,840 was drawn in 2019, and returned roughly $1,290,000 of proceeds to the corporation. Prepayment premiums run from 5 percent down to 1 percent. Compared with the interest-only balloon structures common in this tier, an amortizing loan at a fixed 3.25 percent is a favorable position, and it is one of this building's quieter strengths.

The tax line is not abated. The J-51 abatement from the conversion was $102,500 in 2007 and $58,025 in 2008, and it expired in March 2009. The board levied a one-time special assessment of $0.8235 per share to bridge the step-down. Real estate taxes were $544,961 in 2019. There is no abatement runway left to price in.

Two pieces of history round out the picture. The corporation fought New York City over water and sewer billing dating to 1998, won in Kings County Supreme Court, lost on appeal in the Second Department, and paid $113,766.65 in June 2009, funded partly by a $62,000 assessment. And on August 13, 2008 it sold its rooftop cell site for $235,000, retaining a net-profits agreement entitling it to half of any new rooftop antenna rents. The auditors note that no reserve study has been commissioned — a reason to ask the board directly about the capital plan.

The sponsor position has wound down over three decades. Clinton Mews Associates LP sold its remaining 34,721 shares — 35 apartments — to Technical Solutions of New York, Inc. on November 13, 1993; Technical Solutions sold its remaining 10,899 shares, representing 10 apartments, to 372 DeKalb Avenue LLC on November 26, 2007. By March 2010 the successor held seven apartments carrying 7,709 shares, about 11.6 percent. Ask management for the current figure, because lenders will.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-01933-0070) 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.

The boiler is yours. Every apartment has its own gas-fired unit, the corporation heats only common areas, and repair is expressly the shareholder's responsibility. Ask how old the boiler in your apartment is and whether it was part of the 2005–2006 replacement program.

Maintenance is a bundled number. Electricity, internet and cable ride on the maintenance statement. Do not compare it head-to-head with an unbundled building without adjusting.

The mortgage is the good news. A $3,000,000 fixed-rate loan at 3.25 percent, amortizing over fifteen years from August 2016, is a stronger position than most co-ops in this tier hold. Confirm the current balance and whether the $250,000 line is drawn.

Understand the parking sublease. The corporation subleases the lot from the sponsor through 2086. Read the terms; do not assume the lot is owned.

No Landmarks review here. The building sits outside the Clinton Hill Historic District boundary, which runs along Hall Street and St. James Place. Window and exterior work is a board question, not an LPC question.

Lead with the factory. A shoe and boot works built for Julius Grossman, Inc. in the 1910s, gut-rehabilitated in 1987 — that is a provenance line, and the exposed brick and timber in the apartment prove it on sight.

Say "washer/dryer." In a neighborhood where the largest co-op complexes prohibit in-apartment machines outright, this is a headline, not a footnote.

Show the courtyard and the gate. A landscaped court and gated on-site parking on the Pratt block are amenities that boutique Clinton Hill inventory cannot reproduce.

Have the sublet number right. The 2016 policy says 10 percent of maintenance; the 2020 handbook says 15. Getting the operative figure from management before you list avoids a mid-deal correction.

Position against lofts, then against Clinton Hill. Buyers looking for exposed brick and open plans are shopping DUMBO and the Brooklyn waterfront too. Show them what the same money buys three blocks from the mansion row.

If you're considering Clinton Mews, also evaluate:

• 360 Clinton Avenue — the landmarked 1920s through-block co-op on the mansion row, three blocks west
• 325 Clinton Avenue — the Clinton Hill Co-ops building at the Lafayette Avenue corner, inside the historic district
• 185 Hall Street (Willoughby Walk) — the 1950s co-op tower on the far side of the Pratt campus
• 195 Willoughby Avenue (Willoughby Walk) — Willoughby Walk's second tower
• 122 Ashland Place — large Fort Greene cooperative at the Cultural District edge
• 37 Bridge Street (Kirkman Lofts) — DUMBO soap-factory conversion, the same industrial-to-residential move at higher price per square foot
• 30 Main Street (The Sweeney Building) — DUMBO loft conversion with comparable exposed structure
• 505 Court Street (Court Street Lofts) — Carroll Gardens industrial conversion in the brownstone belt
• 60 Broadway (The Gretsch) — Williamsburg factory conversion for buyers comparing loft stock across Brooklyn