River Front (57 Front Street)
57 Front Street, Brooklyn, NY 11201
DUMBO, Brooklyn
BBL 3000367503 · BIN 3329418
- Year built
- 1899
- Type
- Condominium
- Units
- 31
- Floors
- 7
- Landmark
- No
- Subletting
- Permitted under the condominium framework, subject to the board's right-of-first-refusal notice on leases; sponsor retained the unconditional right to rent rather than sell units (disclosed special risk)
- Pied-à-terre
- Permitted; no owner-occupancy requirement, and the plan states there are no additional occupancy restrictions on units owned by corporations, partnerships or fiduciaries
- Pets
- Dogs, cats, caged birds and fish permitted without prior consent provided they cause no nuisance, health hazard or unsanitary condition; more than two pets requires the board's prior written consent; owner indemnifies the condominium
Compiled by The Roebling Research Desk from the building’s offering plan, amendments, and related building documents (primary source dated 2004-2005 plan; sales package undated). Reported and subject to confirmation. Board policies can change by amendment — confirm at the offer stage.
River Front is DUMBO's loft-conversion argument at boutique scale. Thirty-one apartments in an 1899 building on the north side of Front Street, eighty-one feet from Main — which is to say, in the block-and-a-half of DUMBO where the neighborhood's whole case is made: the Clock Tower two blocks east, the Main Street entrance to Brooklyn Bridge Park a block north, the Manhattan Bridge overhead, and the cobbled approach to Washington Street's photographed view a two-minute walk away. Buildings do not get more centrally DUMBO than this, and very few of them are this small.
The conversion belongs to the second wave. When 57 Front Street, LLC began rehabilitation work in December 2003 and filed its plan with the Attorney General in November 2004, the neighborhood's marquee projects — the Clock Tower, the Sweeney Building, the early Washington Street conversions — had already established that DUMBO loft product would sell. What had not yet been established was whether the smaller buildings between them could support the same conversion economics. River Front is one of the buildings that answered yes. Its plan reads like a period document, describing the DUMBO Art Festival, a Brooklyn Bridge Park still "planned to span 70 acres when fully developed," and a water-taxi service at Fulton Ferry Landing.
The building's landmark status is worth stating precisely, because it cuts against the neighborhood's reputation. The DUMBO Historic District, designated in December 2007, drew its boundary east of Main Street to capture the Robert Gair Company's reinforced-concrete daylight-factory blocks. 57 Front Street sits west of that line and is not within the district. For an owner, that means façade, window, and terrace work runs through the Buildings Department alone rather than through Landmarks — a meaningful cost and timeline advantage over otherwise similar loft inventory two blocks east, and one that competing listings inside the district cannot match.
The other structural fact a buyer should hold onto is the commercial component. Three commercial units sit within the condominium and pay roughly $20,000 a year in common charges against a total budget in the $340,000 range. The plan is blunt about what that means: the commercial units may be used for any lawful purpose, and "such use may be noisy, cause heavy traffic and need not necessarily be compatible with the residential character of the building." Commercial unit owners also hold a permanent seat on the board of managers, with residential owners electing four — a normal structure for a DUMBO mixed-use conversion, and a governance feature worth understanding before contract rather than after.
Architecture and unit composition
Seven stories over a cellar, with the front elevation on Front Street the only face of the building not built to the property line. The plan is direct about the consequence: the windows on the other three sides are lot-line windows, and depending on what is built beside the property they could require fire protection or be sealed in compliance with law. In the densest blocks of DUMBO that is not an abstract risk, and it is the first thing to check against the floor plan of any specific unit.
The apartment inventory is loft-scale one- and two-bedrooms, with the top of the building carrying the outdoor space. Six units — 501, 505, 605, 701, 703, and 704 — have exclusive use of adjacent terraces held as limited common elements, and those owners bear the cost of repairs and replacements to them, with board consent required for any work. Separately, five roof terraces on the building's roof remain part of the residential common elements and are made available under Roof Terrace License Agreements: an owner pays a one-time price for the right to enter into the license and then a monthly license fee to the condominium. This is a structure buyers frequently misread. A licensed roof terrace is not deeded space; it is a revocable-in-form contractual right that shows up on the condominium's income statement as license-fee revenue. Confirm the license's terms, its transferability on resale, and whether any fees are in arrears.
Original Schedule A pricing ran from roughly $270,000 to just under $1,000,000 across the residential units, against a total offering of $21,910,000 including the three commercial units. Those 2004–2005 numbers are useful for ranking the lines against each other; they are not a pricing input twenty years on.
Building operations
The audited financial statements give an unusually clear picture of how this building runs. Total revenue in the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020 was approximately $362,000 against approximately $341,000 of expenses, with residential common charges providing roughly $300,000 and the three commercial units roughly $20,500. The remainder comes from a mix characteristic of a small conversion: roof terrace license fees, laundry income, water and sewer reimbursements, a hallway usage fee, and application fees. Common charges were running at approximately $28,078 per month across the condominium following a 5 percent increase effective July 1, 2020.
The plan's staffing model was a full-time non-live-in superintendent, a porter one day a week, and an eight-hour weekday doorman shift, described as shared building staff and non-union. The operating statements are consistent with that shape — the largest operating line is security at roughly $60,000, followed by cleaning at roughly $30,000, with a management fee of $19,200. Confirm present staffing and attendance hours with management; an eight-hour weekday desk is a different product from a 24-hour doorman and should be described as such.
Three capital matters are on the record and belong in any diligence file. The board engaged a consulting engineer to oversee façade repair plans and clear related Environmental Control Board violations issued by the Buildings Department, and separately retained an engineering firm to file the building's ninth-cycle Façade Inspection Safety Program report — so the building carries a live façade program with a violation history behind it. It installed a Buildings Department-mandated elevator door-lock monitoring system at approximately $13,900. And it spent approximately $25,285 on cooling tower repairs, drawn from the reserve fund — which stood at roughly $94,852 at June 30, 2020, with the auditors noting that no reserve study had been conducted to estimate the remaining useful lives of common components.
That last point is the most important operating fact about River Front. A thin reserve with no reserve study, in a building whose façade and central mechanical equipment are both live capital items, means future major work is likelier to arrive as a special assessment than to be absorbed by accumulated funds. That is ordinary for a 31-unit conversion, and it belongs in your pricing rather than in your first year of ownership.
Recent sales
The retrade record
Lines that have traded more than once in the public record — the building’s appreciation arc, apartment by apartment.
Recent closings at this building, sourced from NYC Department of Finance records. Apartment-level detail (line, condition, asking-price context) verified upon consultation request.
| Date | Unit | Price |
|---|---|---|
| Jun 29, 2026 | 502 | $905,000 |
| Dec 23, 2025 | 702 | $1,050,000 |
| May 16, 2025 | 603 | $1,095,000 |
| Apr 25, 2025 | 305 | $1,080,000 |
| Feb 10, 2022 | 301 | $1,125,000 |
| Jan 6, 2022 | 704 | $1,495,000 |
Full closing history with price-per-square-foot over time, the complete retrade record, and every line that has traded.
Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00036-7503) 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.
What to know if you’re buying
The address is the asset — and it is not landmarked. Core DUMBO, a block from the park entrance, outside the historic district. Exterior and window work runs through the Buildings Department rather than Landmarks, which is a genuine advantage over comparable loft inventory east of Main Street.
Check the lot-line windows in your specific unit. Three of the building's four elevations are built to the property line. Light and view permanence vary unit by unit, and future adjacent construction is the risk to model.
Understand the roof terrace license. A licensed roof terrace is a contractual right with a monthly fee payable to the condominium, not deeded outdoor space. Get the license agreement, confirm transferability, and confirm no arrears.
Read the reserve position. The condominium's reserve was modest as of the most recent statements in the Library, and no reserve study has been performed, while the façade program and central mechanical equipment are both active capital items. Ask for the current financials, the assessment history, and the current FISP status.
Know the commercial exposure — and the service level. Three commercial units sit inside the condominium, hold a permanent board seat, and are permitted any lawful use; ask what occupies them today and what the leases run. On staffing, the plan's model was a weekday desk rather than a 24-hour door — confirm current hours with management before you build them into your expectations.
What to know if you’re selling
Lead with the block. Eighty-one feet from Main Street, a block from Brooklyn Bridge Park's Main Street entrance. In DUMBO, micro-location is the price-maker, and this one is at the top of the range.
Say the building is outside the historic district — and explain why that helps. Buyers who have been through a Landmarks approval elsewhere understand immediately. Most competing DUMBO loft listings cannot make this claim.
Document the terrace right precisely. If your unit carries a limited-common-element terrace, say so. If it carries a roof terrace license, produce the agreement. Ambiguity here creates re-trades at the diligence stage.
Get ahead of the capital story. With an active façade program and a lean reserve, the smartest sellers hand buyers the financials, the FISP status, and the assessment history in the first package rather than the third.
Price against boutique conversions, not the trophy tier. The Clock Tower and the waterfront's premier lines are not your comparables; DUMBO's small and mid-scale conversions are. Closings run condominium-fast, but budget for the board's notice — it does not routinely pre-waive its right of first refusal.
Comparable buildings
If you're considering River Front, also evaluate:
- The Clock Tower (1 Main Street) — DUMBO's trophy loft conversion, two blocks east; the neighborhood's pricing ceiling and the closest geographic peer
- The Sweeney Building (30 Main Street) — Main Street loft conversion of comparable scale, inside the historic district
- 70 Washington Street — the Gair-era loft-conversion benchmark for the neighborhood; larger, deeper amenities
- 51 Jay Street — warehouse-conversion condominium in the historic district's eastern blocks
- 133 Water Street — small-scale DUMBO condominium alternative
- 205 Water Street — boutique DUMBO condominium peer
- 1 John Street — park-front boutique condominium at the water's edge; the newer, higher-priced alternative
- 98 Front Street — full-amenity new construction at Front Street's western end
- 28 Old Fulton Street — Fulton Ferry co-op alternative a few minutes west, under the Brooklyn Bridge
Considering a move at River Front?
Request a private building brief with the relevant comparable sales, current and off-market availability, and an apartment-specific view of value.
Own an apartment here? See what it would sell for.
A Private Pricing Opinion — what your apartment at River Front would likely sell for today, what it costs to sell, and what you’d walk away with — reviewed personally against condition, exposures, renovation quality, and the competition actually on the market.