422 State Street

The building fills a 50-by-100-foot lot with brick bearing walls and wood joists and girders. It is five stories over a garden floor, attached to its neighbors at the front. As offered, each floor held four corner apartments. The first-floor units extended into the garden level as duplexes, and the two rear duplexes each received exclusive use of half the backyard and the adjoining side yard. The plan offered one-bedroom, two-bedroom and three-bedroom layouts, several with one and a half or two baths. The roof was originally common area not meant for shareholder use. The corporation has since built a shared deck, rebuilt under a 2010 permit as a larger steel-framed structure with planters.

Interiors are prewar in scale, with separate rooms and flexible layouts in which one room can serve as a bedroom or a living room. They were modernized at conversion and again apartment by apartment since. DOB records show kitchen and bath renovations, a split-system air conditioning installation and a 2013 first-floor renovation.

The building sits outside the historic districts, so façade and window work require only board and DOB approval.

State Hill Housing Corp. is professionally managed. The capital picture, per the audited statements on file:

Debt. The corporation refinanced in December 2012 with a $512,000 mortgage at 4 percent maturing January 1, 2023, plus a $100,000 credit line. ACRIS records a January 2022 consolidation with the same lender at $780,000, ahead of that maturity. Ask for the current rate, term and balance.

Reserves. At year-end 2020 the corporation held about $200,000 in operating cash and a small dedicated reserve. It had no reserve study. The statements say capital needs will be met by borrowing, maintenance increases or assessments, and special assessments were a recurring revenue line in 2019 and 2020.

Recent work. A partial parapet reconstruction was filed in 2018. A subcontractor's mechanic's lien tied to that job was resolved in February 2021. Board materials from 2007 record a façade refurbishment and a structural assessment that flagged fifth-floor support beams for reinforcement. Confirm that work was completed and signed off.

The 2018 house rules are specific and practical. Work and moves are allowed weekdays 9 to 5 only. Carpeting over 80 percent of floor area is recommended and can be enforced in noise disputes. Shareholders must carry homeowner's insurance. Window AC units over 20,000 BTUs need board approval, and through-wall sleeves are prohibited. Exterior window repair and replacement is a corporation expense.

Purchaser review: Full board approval. The purchase application goes through the managing agent to the board's admissions committee, followed by an interview. The package requires two years of tax returns, recent bank and pay statements, the contract, a mortgage commitment, landlord or board references, personal and business references, and résumés for each proposed shareholder. Application and per-applicant credit-check fees apply.

Subletting: Requires consent under the proprietary lease. Current term limits and fees must come from the managing agent.

Flip tax: In place, per the audited statements. Confirm rate, basis and who pays.

Financing ceiling and post-closing liquidity: Not documented in the materials reviewed. Confirm both at offer stage. In a 20-unit building with a modest reserve, expect the board to look closely at liquidity after closing.

Pied-à-terre, trust and LLC purchases, co-purchasing: Not addressed in the documents on file. Confirm with the managing agent before structuring an offer around any of them.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00178-0025) 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.

Read the debt and the reserve together. The 2022 refinancing pushed out the old maturity. Get the new terms and the current reserve balance, and ask whether an assessment is running.

Ask about the fifth floor. If you're buying on the top floor, ask for evidence that the beam reinforcement flagged in 2007 was completed.

Price the garden duplexes separately. The rear first-floor lines come with exclusive-use yards and garden-level space. They are a different product from the upper-floor flats.

Plan for a full package. The application list is long and specific. Assemble it before the contract is signed.

Lead with the elevator and the roof. An elevator and a shared roof deck are scarce in Boerum Hill's co-op stock. Put both first in the listing.

Have the capital story ready. Buyers' attorneys will ask about the mortgage, the reserve, the parapet job and assessments. Clean answers from the managing agent keep the deal moving.

Correct the landmark assumption. The building is not in the historic district. That is an advantage for renovation, and buyers should know it.

If you're considering 422 State Street, also evaluate:

• 423 Atlantic Avenue (The Ex-Lax Building): 1979–81 loft co-op conversion on the same tax block; the neighborhood's other conversion from those years
• 166 State Street: 20-apartment walk-up co-op on State Street's western end; the same size without an elevator
• 11 Schermerhorn Street: 29-unit prewar elevator co-op near Court Street; the closest like-for-like
• 177 Amity Street: 15-unit early-twentieth-century co-op in Cobble Hill
• 175 Amity Street: 17-unit 1900 apartment-house co-op next door
• 214 Clinton Street: 35-apartment prewar walk-up co-op at Pacific Street
• 96 Schermerhorn Street (Boerum Court): larger institutional-conversion co-op in Downtown Brooklyn
• 77 Livingston Street: 238-unit co-op; the high-count alternative nearby