651 Vanderbilt Street (Park Vanderbilt)

Six stories of red brick running 302.5 feet along Vanderbilt Street on a lot 150 feet deep, wrapped around a landscaped courtyard. Of roughly 162,400 square feet of building area about 132,100 is residential; the balance is the cellar, principally the garage, which is why the tax roll counts 155 units where 149 are apartments.

Across 148 shareholder apartments the residential area works out near 890 square feet apiece before corridors are netted out — postwar apartment-house scale, with full room counts, cross-ventilated lines and real closets, rather than the loft volumes or brownstone floor-throughs the borough's price-per-square-foot conversation assumes. Layouts run from studios to three-bedrooms, and line, floor and exposure drive the spread far more than any building-level average. One house rule shapes renovation plans: at least 80 percent of finished floor area outside kitchens, bathrooms, dining areas and closets must be carpeted or covered, with 90 days after closing to comply.

The corporation is conservatively financed, which is the most useful thing on this page. The audited statements record a bank first mortgage originally written at $2,000,000, fixed at 6.97 percent, amortising at $13,266 a month, self-liquidating and maturing 1 December 2028, with a balance of $879,808 at the most recent year-end on file. Across 148 apartments that is a strikingly small underlying debt, and it retires on a fixed date rather than requiring a refinancing at whatever rates prevail then.

Reserves stood above $1.8 million at the same year-end. They are funded exclusively by transfer fees — the board established the account in 1998 and capitalises it from option waiver fees, which ran $274,170 and $338,950 in the two most recent years on file. That balance comes with a dependency: reserve accretion tracks turnover, so a slow sales year is a slow reserve year.

Two qualifications belong beside those numbers. The auditors note the corporation has not presented the required supplementary information on estimated future major repairs, and the financials state that no reserve study has been conducted and no funding plan developed. And the recent capital calendar is façade-led: building improvements in the most recent year on file totalled $251,146, of which $229,651 was façade restoration under a contract signed at $323,615 excluding engineering, alongside roof restoration and a security gate. A 1963 masonry building with 302 feet of frontage carries a standing Local Law 11 obligation, and that is the line to interrogate. Ancillary income from garage, laundry, bicycle and storage rentals runs near $80,000 a year and materially offsets maintenance; the J-51 exemption the corporation once held is exhausted.

Purchaser review: Full board approval, with a personal interview at the board's discretion. The package requires a documented statement of financial condition, a background report through a consumer reporting agency, and signed acknowledgements of the transfer fee and pet policy.

Financing: Maximum 80 percent, with three original recognition agreements and the commitment letter required before processing. The 30 percent housing-ratio ceiling is a hard screen that eliminates otherwise qualified buyers — run it before an offer, not after.

Transfer fee: Seller-paid by bank check to the corporation; 15 percent for shares acquired before 1 November 1982, 4 percent thereafter.

Garage and bicycle storage: Allocated to shareholders in good standing by waiting list, with vehicle registration and insurance on file; maximum two bicycle spaces per apartment.

Subletting: Board application and consent required; term limits, renewal policy and fees not documented. Confirm with the managing agent before underwriting a rental case.

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 $1,441/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 1.2% 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 3-05268-0033). 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.

Run the income test before you run the numbers. Twenty percent down is the easy half; the 30 percent ceiling on maintenance plus debt service is the half that fails deals.

Read the reserve note, not just the reserve balance. More than $1.8 million against 148 apartments is a substantial balance, but with no reserve study, as the auditors' own report discloses, its adequacy against future capital needs is not established.

Ask what remains on the façade contract. Get the engineer's report, the FISP filing status and confirmation that the work closed out.

Treat the 2028 maturity as a feature. The underlying loan is small, fixed and self-liquidating. Confirm the current balance and the board's intention at maturity.

Model the transfer fee first. If your shares predate 1 November 1982 the fee is 15 percent and it is yours to pay. That should shape your reserve price, not surprise you at closing.

Use your own building as the comparable set. Eighty-seven recorded sales supply better evidence than the neighborhood does; anchor to matched sales on your line and floor band from 2025 forward.

Lead with what the block does not have. Elevator, garage, bicycle room, laundry, live-in superintendent and a courtyard, on a street of two-family houses.

Brief the buyer's broker on the board's terms early. The financing ceiling and income ratio are findable later and expensive to find late.

If you're considering 651 Vanderbilt Street, also evaluate:

• 140 East 2nd Street — the neighborhood's most-traded address, with 114 apartments to this building's 149
• 346 Coney Island Avenue — the second most-traded Windsor Terrace cooperative
• 81 Ocean Parkway and 30 Ocean Parkway — the Ocean Parkway cooperative cohort
• 135 Prospect Park Southwest — park-facing elevator cooperative; the premium end of the tier
• 166 Seeley Street and 202 Seeley Street — the two prewar elevator cooperatives on this block, at 55 and 42 apartments
• 221 McDonald Avenue — a 160-unit 1953 elevator cooperative; the closest peer by scale
• 300 Eighth Avenue — accessible prewar Park Slope cooperative; the ceiling comparison
• 140 Eighth Avenue — interwar courtyard cooperative; similar operating profile, higher price
• 420 12th Street — South Slope loft cooperative; volume instead of room count