450 Clinton Street

The renovated structure carries four floors plus a fourth-floor mezzanine over a basement and cellar, on an 85-by-135-foot lot with roughly 36,000 square feet of building area. That combination — a large footprint, a small floor count and a mezzanine level — is what a sanctuary volume looks like after floor plates are inserted, and it produces the interior variety this building is known for. Ceiling heights, window shapes and plan geometry differ from apartment to apartment in ways that no row house or purpose-built cooperative ever produces.

The share schedule allocated 8,310 shares across the apartments, and the plan contemplated two units sold for professional rather than residential use. The unit count in the plan is genuinely inconsistent between its narrative section and its definitions — 35 in one place, 37 in the other — and the tax roll records 36 residential of 37 total. This is a paperwork question with a real answer in the corporate records, and one an attorney should close out early rather than at the closing table.

Two details from the plan bear on renovation planning. There is no superintendent's apartment in the building; the corporation budgeted a part-time superintendent living within the statutory 200 feet and a workshop room in the cellar. And apartments were delivered without a stove or refrigerator, which means original kitchens here were never uniform to begin with.

Because the property is neither individually designated nor inside the Carroll Gardens Historic District, exterior work does not require Landmarks review — an often-overlooked distinction from the Carroll and President Street blocks two streets north, and one that cuts in the owner's favor on windows, ironwork and painting.

The corporation was capitalized at conversion with a $750,000 first mortgage from Hamilton Federal Savings and Loan Association on a ten-year term, payments set against a twenty-year amortization schedule, and a balloon of approximately $591,585 due in 1996. That debt has necessarily been refinanced several times over, and the current underlying mortgage — balance, rate, maturity — is the single most important number a buyer can ask for, because in a 36-apartment corporation it drives maintenance more than any other line.

The operating model was deliberately light and appears to have stayed that way: a part-time superintendent, a laundry concession rather than owned equipment, a compactor, an elevator, and a small professional-fee allowance, with heating and hot water sitting on the shareholder's own meter. Management at conversion was contemplated with Old House Realty; the cooperative's current Department of Housing Preservation and Development registration names E. M. Holding Corp of 80 Joralemon Street, Brooklyn.

The recurring capital items in a masonry building of this age are the roof, the envelope and Local Law 11 façade cycles, plus the elevator. Request three years of financial statements, the assessment history, the reserve balance, the current façade status and the underlying mortgage terms — and separately ask the corporation's position on the First Place court and on the rear Auditorium parcel, because both are title questions rather than operating questions.

Purchaser review: Full cooperative board approval in the standard form.

Subletting: The proprietary lease permits subletting with Board of Directors approval, and provides that if the board refuses, consent may instead come from shareholders holding at least 75 percent of the corporation's outstanding shares. That is an unusually shareholder-friendly structure for a small cooperative, but four decades of board practice may have layered term limits or fees on top of it. Get the current sublet policy in writing.

Pets: The house rules prohibit keeping any bird or animal without the corporation's express written permission, revocable at any time, and require dogs to be carried or leashed in public areas. Confirm how the current board administers this.

Air conditioning and exterior appearance: No window air-conditioning unit or ventilator may be installed without approval, and no sign, awning or projection is permitted from a window without written consent.

Quiet hours and construction: No amplified sound between 11:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m. if it disturbs other occupants; construction and repair work weekdays only, 8:30 a.m. to 5:00 p.m.

Flip tax, financing minimums, pied-à-terre and washer/dryer policy: Not documented in the plan as filed. These are board-made policies that postdate the 1986 paperwork entirely; management's current answers control.

Recent sales

Recent transfers at this building, curated by The Roebling Team research desk. 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. $/sf is measured on the latest sales with reliable square footage (2024): a median $839/sf across 1 sale. The building has traded as recently as 2025. Median listing discount 0.0% from the last ask.

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00355-0030) 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; square footage on co-ops is not officially recorded, figures shown are approximate.

Understand the courtyard. The garden in front of the building is City-owned land the cooperative maintains and uses, subject to a reservation dating to 1846. It has never been exercised. It is still a title fact your attorney should read for themselves.

Ask about the rear parcel and parking. The former Auditorium and its roughly thirty parking spaces were retained by the sponsor at conversion and never conveyed to the cooperative. Confirm current ownership and whether any shareholder parking arrangement survives.

Reconcile the unit count and your share allocation. The plan says 35 units in one section and 37 in another; the tax roll says 36 residential of 37. Confirm the specific apartment's designation and shares against the corporate records.

Request the underlying mortgage terms. In a 36-apartment corporation this is the maintenance. Get balance, rate and maturity, plus three years of financials and the assessment history.

Add the utilities back in. Separately metered heat and hot water make this building's maintenance figure look better than a like-for-like comparison supports. Model the total monthly.

Tell the building's story accurately. Built about 1867 by the Westminster Presbyterian Church, sold to the Norwegian Seamen's Church in 1927, bought by the sponsor in May 1984 and offered as a cooperative in January 1986. All of it is documented in the offering plan, and almost no competing listing on a Place block can say anything comparable.

Lead with the elevator. In a neighborhood of walk-up conversions, an elevator in a small cooperative is a genuine differentiator, and it widens the buyer pool materially.

Explain the maintenance advantage properly. Separately metered heat and hot water is a selling point when it is explained, and a source of buyer suspicion when it is not.

Own the garden block. First Place is a Butts courtyard block. It is the reason the neighborhood is called Carroll Gardens, and it is not in the historic district — which means no Landmarks review on exterior work. Both halves of that are worth saying.

If you're considering 450 Clinton Street, also evaluate:

• 214 Clinton Street — 35-unit prewar cooperative further up the same street, in Cobble Hill; the closest tenure-and-scale comparison
• 358 Court Street — the South Congregational Church complex; Carroll Gardens' other church conversion, in condominium form
• 58 Strong Place (The Landmark at Strong) — a Cobble Hill church conversion; the best direct product comparison in the area
• 174 Pacific Street — 28-unit Cobble Hill cooperative; small-corporation economics on the same terms
• 200 Congress Street — the district's large elevator cooperative with a garage; the amenity alternative in co-op form
• 175 Amity Street — 17-unit Cobble Hill cooperative; boutique scale
• 345 Carroll Street — boutique Carroll Gardens condominium, for buyers weighing tenure
• 344 Degraw Street — small Carroll Gardens condominium a few blocks north
• 505 Court Street (Court Street Lofts) — the neighborhood's loft alternative, further south on Court