39 Plaza Street West

Fourteen stories on an irregular corner lot of 5,575 square feet, holding roughly 65,000 square feet of building. The 1980 plan's apartment schedule shows a three-apartment typical floor — an A line of six rooms and two-and-a-half baths, a B line of three rooms and one bath, and a C line of four rooms and two baths — running from the second floor to the twelfth, with a penthouse above and a mezzanine level below carrying the maisonette-scale MA, MB and MC units. Apartment MB was the superintendent's; MC and M2 were both designated on the certificate of occupancy as doctors' offices, with M2 retained as corporation common area.

At an average near 1,600 square feet across the recorded units, this is a large-apartment building by Park Slope standards without approaching the scale of the Prospect Park West cooperatives. The value spread runs on line and floor together: the A line is the six-room corner product with the plaza and park outlook, the B line is the compact three-room apartment, and the upper floors clear the setbacks. Because the building faces the traffic circle rather than a street wall, exposure quality changes floor by floor in a way that a floor plan will not tell you — see the actual apartment at the actual hour.

Any exterior alteration now runs through the Landmarks Preservation Commission as well as the Department of Buildings, a constraint the building did not carry until April 2016. Recent capital additions recorded in the financials — canopy, roof, exterior work — postdate the designation, and the approvals path is now part of the cost of anything touching the envelope.

39 Plaza Housing Corporation runs a compact budget with an unusual shape. Real estate taxes are the largest line at roughly 37.5 percent of expenses; payroll and related costs are next at roughly 29.5 percent, which is high for a forty-unit building and is the direct cost of attended elevators and door service. Approximately ninety percent of employees are covered by a collective bargaining agreement with the International Union of Journeymen and Allied Trades, Local 726, under a health-insurance plan without a multiemployer defined benefit pension — a materially different labor structure from the SEIU 32BJ arrangement common in larger buildings, and one that changes the benefits exposure a buyer is underwriting.

The debt structure is the item to scrutinize. In December 2020 the corporation refinanced a $2,400,000 Sterling National Bank mortgage — paying a $48,000 prepayment penalty — into a $2,550,000 mortgage with Apple Bank for Savings at a fixed 3.075 percent, payable in monthly installments of interest only, maturing January 1, 2031. There is no amortization. The principal balance on maturity is the same $2,550,000 the corporation borrowed, against a building whose year-end cash has recently run near $190,000, with no dedicated reserve fund line and no reserve study on file. A $500,000 unsecured revolving line of credit with the same bank, undrawn at last audit, runs to the same maturity. The corporation is required to keep a minimum $10,000 balance with the bank for the term.

That is not a distress signal — the corporation has operated near break-even, the mortgage is small relative to the building's value, and interest-only structures were common at 2020 rates. It is a scheduled event. A buyer should ask what the board's refinancing plan is, what rate environment it is underwriting, and whether an assessment is contemplated. Other income lines are modest and stable: laundry at $4,800 a year, storage fees, transfer fees at 1.5 percent of sale price, and the rent from the corporation's own apartment. Real estate tax abatements of roughly $73,000 a year are passed through to eligible shareholders. Special assessments were levied in November 2007, June 2010 and April 2017; the shareholder cost-basis schedule in the financials shows the pattern clearly and is a useful diligence document in its own right.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-01064-0018) 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 smoking rule reaches inside the apartment. It is in the proprietary lease, not the house rules, and it covers vapor. If that is disqualifying, it is disqualifying before the first showing.

There is no in-apartment laundry and there cannot be. The house rules prohibit installing or storing machines in apartments. Buyers coming from a condominium consistently underestimate how much this matters to them.

Read the mortgage maturity. A $2,550,000 interest-only loan matures January 1, 2031 with no principal amortization, against modest year-end cash and no reserve study. Ask for the board's refinancing plan in writing.

Do the per-share arithmetic before you react to any fee. With 173 shares outstanding across roughly forty apartments, per-share figures in this building are large by construction. Convert every quoted rate into dollars for your specific apartment.

Understand what changed in 2016. Extension II brought this building under Landmarks jurisdiction after forty-three years outside it. Window and façade work now needs LPC approval, which affects both cost and schedule.

Budget for the attended elevator. It is a real amenity and it is why payroll runs near thirty percent of expenses. That shows up in maintenance every month.

Lead with Candela and lead with the plaza. Two Brooklyn buildings, both on this block, this one first, in 1926. It is a one-line story and it is true.

Screen for the smoking and laundry rules early. Both are absolute, both are documented, and both kill deals after board submission if they are discovered late.

Plan the open house around the rules. Weekend only, noon or later, four hours, four weeks' notice, $150 elevator fee. Book it before you price the apartment, not after.

Confirm the advertising restriction with the board. The rules as written limit use of the building's address in listings. Get the current position in writing so your marketing does not have to be redone.

Have the mortgage and assessment history ready. The 2031 interest-only maturity will come up in every attorney review. So will the 2007, 2010 and 2017 assessments. The shareholder cost-basis schedule in the financials answers both cleanly.

If you're considering 39 Plaza Street West, also evaluate:

• 35 Prospect Park West — Emery Roth's 1929 cooperative at Garfield Place; the other architect-signature prewar building on the Gold Coast, at much greater scale
• 50 Plaza Street East — the 1925 twelve-story co-op on the eastern arc of Grand Army Plaza
• 20 Plaza Street East — 1940 co-op on the Plaza; the later interwar alternative
• 10 Plaza Street East — the 1959 fifteen-story co-op; postwar full service on the same circle
• 34 Plaza Street East — prewar co-op on the Prospect Heights side of the Plaza
• 209 Lincoln Place — the ten-story 1928 co-op converted by the same sponsors, inside the original 1973 district
• 225 Lincoln Place — 1923 six-story co-op with a documented flip tax; the low-rise district alternative
• 1 Prospect Park West — the 2019 condominium conversion at the foot of the Plaza; condo ownership with in-unit laundry
• 135 Eastern Parkway (Turner Towers) — the large prewar Prospect Heights cooperative