76 Remsen Street

Slee & Bryson's Heights apartment houses trade in proportion and masonry rather than ornament, and 76 Remsen sits squarely in that manner: six stories of quietly detailed brick in a block of row houses. The 1963 plan's construction description is more informative than any elevation — brick throughout the exterior walls; brick and steel through the two fire-tower stairwells serving every public hall; public halls of concrete, brick and steel; the remainder built and finished in non-fireproof materials. A self-service Gurney elevator was already in place when the Ostes bought the building in 1956, and modernization was on the sponsors' recommended list by 1963.

At conversion the building held 26 apartments including the superintendent's, totalling 116 rooms — an average a shade under four and a half rooms each, which describes the stock accurately: one- and two-bedroom prewar layouts with real rooms and real halls. One alteration in the sponsors' own tenure shows how the building has changed: in 1957 the original six-room apartment 1D was legally remodelled into two apartments of two and three rooms. Six decades of combinations sit between the plan's 26 and today's 23, which makes line-to-line comparison less useful here than the specific apartment's floor, exposure, room count and share allocation.

The through-block lot is the building's best physical asset. The rear courtyard and garden — locked gate onto Grace Court Alley, shared barbecue, a reservation system run through the mail room — is a genuine outdoor amenity in a neighborhood where most six-story co-ops have none. Exterior work, windows included, runs through the LPC under the district designation.

76 Remsen Street, Inc. has run the building since the 1963 closings, today with Cornerstone Management Systems as managing agent, named in the corporation's own house rules. The operating model is the district standard at this scale: resident superintendent, elevator, basement laundry, storage, and a board that does its own rule-writing. The front door is double-locked from 10:00 p.m. to 7:00 a.m., the basement back door and alley gate stay locked, the roof is off limits and alarmed, renovation requires written board approval and insured contractors, and materials and moves come in through the alley rather than the front lobby.

The Roebling Research Library holds the 1963 plan, the proprietary lease, the bylaws, the alteration agreement, the current house rules and Dog Policy, the purchase application, and audited financial statements from 1999–2000 through 2014–15. Current financials, the budget, the reserve position and any open assessment are reviewed with clients during diligence. For a 1922 masonry building, FISP/LL11 façade cycles, elevator modernization, roof and boiler life are the recurring capital items; the rear yard and alley elevation are worth asking about specifically, since they carry the service entrance.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00253-0061) 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.

Subletting is prohibited outright. No exceptions appear in the current house rules. Buy here only if you intend to live here.

Read the Dog Policy before you fall in love with the apartment. One dog per unit, roughly 18 inches at full growth, specific breed exclusions, board approval and an annual paperwork requirement — one of the more detailed pet regimes in the district.

Confirm the unit and share ledger. Twenty-six apartments at conversion, twenty-three today. Your attorney should verify the apartment's shares, room count and any combination approvals against the stock ledger.

Budget for a small building's capital events. Twenty-three apartments carry a 1922 masonry envelope, one passenger elevator and a through-block lot with two frontages. Ask for the assessment history and the reserve balance, and confirm in writing whether the apartment carries a grandfathered washer-dryer, since new installations are barred.

Lead with 1963. Very few Brooklyn Heights buildings can say they have been a cooperative for more than sixty years. A long, unbroken corporate history is an underwriting asset with lenders and a credibility asset with buyers.

Name the architects. Slee & Bryson defined Colonial Revival Brooklyn — Albemarle-Kenmore Terraces, the Appellate Division courthouse, 15 Clark Street, 8 Remsen Street. Most six-story Remsen Street prewars go unattributed in marketing; this one does not have to.

Market to owner-occupants, and sell the whole package. The sublet prohibition means investor traffic wastes everyone's time; for the buyers who remain, a private storage unit, a bike space and a through-block garden with a barbecue are concrete monthly-life advantages over the district's walk-up and small-elevator stock.

Price against the district's mid-size prewar set. The right comps are Remsen, Grace Court and Hicks Street co-ops of similar scale — not the Montague corridor's larger, more heavily staffed buildings.

If you're considering 76 Remsen Street, also evaluate:

• 60 Remsen Street — the block's larger prewar elevator co-op; the closest direct comparable
• 68 Remsen Street — mid-size prewar co-op two doors east
• 100 Remsen Street — Remsen Street co-op peer closer to Clinton
• 15 Clark Street — Slee & Bryson's own Heights apartment house; the direct pedigree comparable
• 59 Pineapple Street — Slee & Bryson's 1926 Fruit Streets co-op; the same firm in the same register
• 1 Grace Court — boutique co-op on the cul-de-sac behind the block
• 19 Grace Court — small prewar co-op peer off Hicks Street
• 130 Hicks Street — boutique prewar co-op two blocks north
• 20 Pierrepont Street — interwar elevator co-op at the Promenade end; the entry-tier alternative