40 Clinton Street (Clinton Towers)

The building is an eleven-story structure of irregular footprint with a penthouse level, a basement level of eleven apartments plus the professional office, and typical floors of fourteen apartments (floors one through eight), narrowing to ten apartments on nine and ten and nine at the penthouse as the setbacks bite. The unit mix runs from studios and one-bedrooms through the larger combined and penthouse-line apartments; the seven rear garden-line units carry private terraces onto the garage-roof yard, and upper-floor setback units gain terraces from the massing steps. Two passenger elevators serve cellar through penthouse.

Apartment interiors follow the 1964 postwar idiom — efficient foyer entries, windowed kitchens and baths in many lines, and solid concrete-frame construction between floors. The co-op owns and maintains the central heating and air-conditioning plant, an unusual convenience for the era and the neighborhood: apartments draw on building HVAC rather than individual window or through-wall condensers, and the house rules regulate access for riser maintenance accordingly. Combinations have been common over the decades given the fourteen-unit floorplates; layouts should be verified unit by unit against the offering plan's share schedule.

Clinton Towers operates as a full-service cooperative. The staffing model at conversion — superintendent, two doormen, two porters, and a handyman — established the service pattern that continues today, with door coverage, a live-in super, and a managed package and laundry operation (the laundry room is open at all hours under the house rules). The garage seats 50 cars under an operator lease whose terms require resident priority, uniformed attendants, and operator responsibility for repairs; garage tenancy predating the conversion carried rent-stabilized protections for non-purchasing tenants. The roof deck is a house amenity, subject to board rules.

Governance runs through Clinton Towers Apt. Corp.'s board, which enforces a detailed and actively updated house-rule regime — the current rules cover everything from smoking (building-wide common-area ban) to renovation hours, insurance minimums ($500,000 liability), a $50 late fee after the 15th, and a graduated fine schedule for violations. Board oversight extends to refinancing: shareholders financing or refinancing must submit an application for board review, a control worth flagging to lenders early.

Subletting: Board approval required before any sublease is signed. Terms are one year, each renewal requires fresh approval, and a unit may be sublet for a maximum of five years total under the same shareholder. A sublet fee of 20 percent of the unit's monthly maintenance applies every month of the sublease. Short-term rentals of any structure — Airbnb, VRBO, apartment swaps, any term under one year — are strictly prohibited and aggressively fined.

Pets: Up to two pets (dogs and/or cats, or one of each); 40-pound cap, with breed restrictions including pit bull, Rottweiler, and Cane Corso types and related breeds. Subtenants may not keep pets.

Washer/dryer: Prohibited in apartments. Pre-existing machines were grandfathered only until sale or sublet; machines may not be replaced.

Alterations: Board-administered alteration agreement required before any renovation; no garbage disposals or jetted tubs.

Move-ins/move-outs: $500 non-refundable fee plus $500 refundable deposit for shareholders; weekday and Saturday hours only.

Financing, minimum down, and flip tax: Not documented in the materials reviewed. Confirm current board requirements and any transfer-fee schedule with the managing agent before structuring an offer.

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 $1,189/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 1.6% 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 3-00238-0065). 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.

This is the services play in the Heights. Doorman, live-in super, central air, garage, roof deck — the amenity set is the point. Price the maintenance against the services actually delivered, and compare honestly with what a no-staff prewar co-op would cost you monthly after adding parking and window units.

The garage has a waiting dynamic. Fifty spaces serve 150-plus apartments with resident priority; ask about current availability and cost before assuming a space conveys with your purchase, because it does not.

Sublet policy is defined and finite. One-year terms, five-year lifetime cap, 20 percent maintenance surcharge. If you may need long-term rental flexibility, a condominium is the better instrument.

No in-unit laundry — permanently. The washer/dryer prohibition includes a no-replacement rule for grandfathered machines. The central laundry is the trade.

Confirm financing and transfer-fee terms early. Board financing requirements and any flip tax are not in the public record; have your agent confirm the current application package before offer.

Market against the district's co-ops on services and convenience. Your buyer is choosing between charm and function; sell the doorman, the central air, the garage priority, and the Borough Hall transit cluster explicitly.

Terrace and setback units deserve their own comparable set. The garden-line terraces over the rear yard and the ninth-floor-and-up setback terraces are scarce features; do not let per-room building averages anchor their pricing.

Prepare the board package for a policy-heavy building. The house rules are detailed and enforced; a clean, complete application with the insurance certificate and alteration history moves faster.

Disclose the washer/dryer rule to buyers with machines in mind. It is a deal-shaping fact and better surfaced at the listing stage.

If you're considering 40 Clinton Street, also evaluate:

• 75 Henry Street — the Heights' largest postwar co-op; the closest peer in scale and services
• 77 Livingston Street — 1964 postwar elevator co-op on the Borough Hall side of the neighborhood
• 130 Clinton Street — smaller Clinton Street prewar co-op alternative in the district proper
• 57 Montague Street (The Breukelen) — prewar Montague Street co-op with doorman service
• 135 Willow Street — the postwar co-op alternative inside the historic district, with garage
• 145 Hicks Street (The Mansion House) — prewar mid-scale co-op in the district's core
• 100 Remsen Street — mid-size prewar co-op south of Montague
• 44 Pineapple Street — large north-Heights co-op comparable