87 Hicks Street

Five stories of 1889 masonry inside a designated historic district, with a garden level opening below the stoop line. The 1984 share allocation ran from 166 shares on the smallest fourth-floor C-line unit to 471 on the garden-level two-bath apartment, and the concentration of value is tight: most units sat between 230 and 300 shares. Two- and three-room apartments dominate, which in current market terms means studios, junior one-bedrooms and one-bedrooms, with the occasional two-bedroom created by combination or by reading a three-room layout generously.

Because the building is small, renovated and unrenovated apartments diverge sharply in price, and there are rarely two comparable sales in the same line within a normal underwriting window. Original detail — mantels, casings, floors — survives in some units and has been stripped in others. Condition matters most; usable light on a block of close-set masonry neighbors matters second.

Anything touching the exterior runs through the LPC, and the plan's special-risk language is a useful reminder that this includes windows and through-wall air conditioners. Price Landmarks review into a renovation schedule rather than the contingency.

87 Hicks Street Tenants Corp. has operated the building since the mid-1980s closing. This is a shareholder-run walk-up: no elevator to modernize, no doorman payroll, no lobby to renovate. The conversion budget's staffing line — a single part-time non-resident superintendent for ten hours a week — is the clearest statement of the operating philosophy, and while current staffing should be confirmed, buildings of this scale in the district generally continue in that register.

The trade is that capital work lands harder when it comes. A nineteen-unit corporation spreads a façade cycle, a roof or a boiler across a small share base, and assessments are the normal mechanism. The co-op's financial statements in The Roebling Research Library show how the board has handled that historically — reserve levels, assessment frequency and maintenance trajectory are the three numbers to trace. For an 1889 masonry building, the FISP/LL11 façade cycle is the recurring item.

Recent sales

Sales sourced from NYC Department of Finance recorded transfers (BBL 3-00226-0006) 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.

Reconcile the unit count and your share allocation. The plan covered 19 apartments; DOF shows 20. Your attorney should confirm the specific unit's shares, the current certificate of occupancy and any combination or subdivision history.

Price the walk-up honestly. Five stories with no elevator affects resale to a real segment of the buyer pool. It also keeps your maintenance low. Decide which side of that you are on before you bid.

Ask about assessments. In a nineteen-unit corporation, capital work arrives as an assessment. The history of those assessments is the best available read on the board's financial management.

Landmarks governs your windows. Any exterior work, including window replacement and through-wall air conditioning, requires LPC approval. Build that into any renovation timeline.

Get policy answers in writing. Pets, subletting practice, financing minimums and any flip tax postdate the plan documents. Management's current answers control.

Lead with the block. Fruit Streets quiet, two blocks to the Promenade, two to the Clark Street express. On a walk-up listing, location does more work than any interior feature.

Document the renovation. In a building where condition sets the spread, permits, Landmarks-clean alteration files and a clear record of what was done are price-makers rather than paperwork.

Show the carrying cost. Low maintenance is this building's competitive answer to the district's full-service co-ops. Put the monthly number in front of buyers early and let it argue for you.

Price against the district's walk-up set. The right comparables are small Heights co-ops of similar scale and staffing — not the Montague corridor's elevator buildings.

If you're considering 87 Hicks Street, also evaluate:

• 66 Orange Street — 1912 conversion co-op around the corner at similar scale, with an elevator and courtyards
• 130 Hicks Street — small prewar co-op further south on the same street
• 145 Hicks Street — larger Hicks Street co-op; the full-service alternative on the same corridor
• 8 Old Fulton Street (Brooklyn City Railroad Company Building) — eleven-unit conversion co-op at the district's north edge; the smallest-scale comparable
• 54 Orange Street — Fruit Streets prewar co-op one block east
• 72 Orange Street — moderate-scale Fruit Streets peer
• 149 Willow Street — twenty-unit 1889 co-op two blocks west, converted in the same era
• 15 Clark Street — prewar elevator co-op at the express-train corner
• 35 Clark Street — prewar co-op peer on the Clark Street corridor