Real Estate Crown Heights

How high are house prices in Crown Heights North?

Eye on Real Estate

December 19, 2018 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle
Welcome to Crown Heights North, which is full of eye-catching historic houses. Eagle photos by Lore Croghan
Welcome to Crown Heights North, which is full of eye-catching historic houses. Photo: Lore Croghan/Brooklyn Eagle
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Houses in Crown Heights North are selling for a pretty penny.

We’re talking about the part of Crown Heights that’s located between Eastern Parkway and Atlantic Avenue. In the past decade, the city Landmarks Preservation Commission has created historic districts that protect 19th- and early 20th-century properties on many of its blocks from demolition or exterior alteration without the agency’s approval.  

We love Crown Heights South, too. Property pricing in that section of the neighborhood, between Eastern Parkway and Empire Boulevard, is a story for another day.

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We put together a sampler of 2018 multi-family house sales in Crown Heights North. Take a look.

This attached house at 855-857 St. Marks Ave., which was designed by beloved architect Montrose Morris, is a good example of the 19th-century charm of Crown Heights North.
This attached house at 855-857 St. Marks Ave., which was designed by beloved architect Montrose Morris, is a good example of the 19th-century charm of Crown Heights North.

 

St. Marks Avenue mansion with a carriage house in the back

An LLC with Sergio Cucci as authorized signatory paid $3.25 million for 669 St. Marks Ave., city Finance Department records indicate.

Cucci is identified on the deed as the buyer’s lawyer. He’s an attorney at law firm Reinhardt LLP.

The LLC’s address is “in care of VPM NYC Inc.,” the deed says. That’s a property management company.

The handsome house at left is recently sold 669 St. Marks Ave.
The handsome house at left is recently sold 669 St. Marks Ave.

 

The seller, an entity whose president is Alexandre Lacroix, had purchased the house for $1.5 million in 2015, Finance Department records show.

The combination Queen Anne-Romanesque Revival mansion is semi-detached.

The brick and stone house has a sharply peaked roof and a front porch with columns.

The property is on a non-landmarked block.

A posting on the Brownstone Detectives website says a builder named Stephen Morehouse Randall constructed the mansion for his family in 1891.

Previous owners of 669 St. Marks Ave. include “a doctor who prescribed whiskey during Prohibition,” the Brownstone Detectives posting notes.

A listing posted on Brownstoner.com says there’s a two-story carriage house behind the mansion.

This is a long view of the block where recently sold 669 St. Marks Ave. is located. You can see its porch's pillars at far left.
This is a long view of the block where recently sold 669 St. Marks Ave. is located. You can see its porch’s pillars at far left.

 

Two St. Marks Avenue buildings both sold for $2.9 million

Across the street from 669 St. Marks Ave., a townhouse made of butter-colored brick and brownstone with chocolate-colored trim also changed hands.

An LLC with Alexandre Guillot as a member bought the beautiful townhouse, whose address is 688 St. Marks Ave., for $2.9 million, Finance Department records show.

The lovely rowhouse with the protruding upstairs window is 688 St. Marks Ave., which recently changed hands.
The lovely rowhouse with the protruding upstairs window is 688 St. Marks Ave., which recently changed hands.

 

This side of the block isn’t landmarked either.

An online posting about the rowhouse says it was built in 1905.

This eye-catching building is 701 St. Marks Ave. on the corner of Nostrand Avenue.
This eye-catching building is 701 St. Marks Ave. on the corner of Nostrand Avenue.

 

The small brick building at left, which is Greater Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, stands beside a row of limestone houses on St. Marks Avenue.
The small brick building at left, which is Greater Mount Pleasant Baptist Church, stands beside a row of limestone houses on St. Marks Avenue.

 

Several blocks away, in the Crown Heights III Historic District, an LLC with Edmund Soleymani as sole member bought 907 St. Marks Ave. from Andrew David Black for $2.9 million, Finance Department records indicate.

The seller is a doctor whose office was located there, online records indicate.

The building on the corner of Kingston Avenue is recently sold 907 Saint Marks Ave.
The building on the corner of Kingston Avenue is recently sold 907 Saint Marks Ave.

 

The Renaissance Revival-style flats building, as the historic district’s designation report calls it, stands on the corner of Kingston Avenue. It was constructed around 1908. Architect Frank S. Lowe designed it.

The windows on the second, third and fourth floors of the four-story building are boarded up or filled in with painted concrete blocks.

NMI Architecture filed plans with the city Buildings Department to turn the office property back into a residential building.

In November, Community Board 8 voted down Soleymani’s renovation plans for the building — he intends to turn it into a co-living apartment facility, Bklyner.com reported.

Online records show that shortly afterwards, the Landmarks Preservation Commission unanimously approved his proposed alterations of 907 St. Marks Ave.’s exterior.

 

The bread in a rowhouse sandwich

Frank S. Lowe also designed a trio of stone and yellow-brick Renaissance Revival-style flats buildings further down the block at 939 to 947 St. Marks Ave. Eisenbach Realty Co. built them around 1907, the designation report about the Crown Heights III Historic District notes.

The building in the middle — we think of it as the filling in this rowhouse sandwich — is a residential condo property. Its address is 943 St. Marks Ave.  

The building at right is 947 St. Marks Ave. and the third building from the right is 939 St. Marks Ave. Both recently changed hands.
The building at right is 947 St. Marks Ave. and the third building from the right is 939 St. Marks Ave. Both recently changed hands.

 

This flower is painted on the pavement at St. Marks Playground, which is located across from recently sold 939 and 947 St. Marks Ave.
This flower is painted on the pavement at St. Marks Playground, which is located across from recently sold 939 and 947 St. Marks Ave.

 

The two buildings on either side — the two slices of bread in this rowhouse sandwich — are rental-apartment properties that both belonged to one owner until their sale this year.

The purchasers were two LLCs with slightly different names and the same managing member, CH North Realty II LLC, whose managing member is Shmuel Lang, Finance Department records show.

The price paid for 939 St. Marks Ave. was $3,379,310, and 947 St. Marks Ave.’s sale price was $3,620,689, Finance Department records indicate.

 

A church sells buildings on Rochester Avenue

Now let’s head to Dean Street.

An LLC with Matthew Kern as member bought 1437 Dean St. for $1.155 million, Finance Department records show.

The designation report about the Crown Heights North III Historic District says architect Henry L. Spicer designed the Renaissance Revival-style stone townhouse, which was built around 1900.

It’s situated in a row of five houses built at 1431 to 1439 Dean St. for Benjamin C. Raymond.

Rowhouses on this picturesque landmarked block include recently sold 1437 Dean St., which is the fourth door from the left.
Rowhouses on this picturesque landmarked block include recently sold 1437 Dean St., which is the fourth door from the left.

 

Several blocks away, in a non-landmarked Crown Heights location, an LLC with Melissa Goldberger Neuman as sole member paid $2.675 million for 203-205-207 Rochester Ave., Finance Department records show.

The rowhouses were part of a church complex.

The seller was the New Gethsemane Baptist Church, which retained ownership of the building next door, 209 Rochester Ave., Finance Department records indicate.

The new owner of 203-205-207 Rochester Ave. plans to construct two stories on top of the three-story buildings and expand them horizontally, Buildings Department filings indicate.

The building at right belongs to New Gethsemane Baptist Church, which recently sold the adjacent three buildings, which are 207, 205 and 203 Rochester Ave.
The building at right belongs to New Gethsemane Baptist Church, which recently sold the adjacent three buildings, which are 207, 205 and 203 Rochester Ave.

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