It’s the era of the Brooklyn penthouse.
When a top-floor pad at One John Street in Brooklyn entered contract for $8.8 million last month, the deal set a new milestone: the most expensive apartment ever sold in the borough.
Sure, it’s a superlative transaction, but in other prime King’s County nabes, there are a handful of other pricey penthouses gunning for their own superlatives, albeit on a more local scale.
Early this month, a 2,859-square-foot penthouse at 550 Vanderbilt Ave. in Prospect Heights — part of the Pacific Park megaproject near Barclays Center — hit the market for $6.86 million. If it sells for that price, it would handily squash the area’s existing $5.1 million condo record.
Meanwhile, a 5,091-square-foot penthouse at the Piet Boon-designed Oosten development along the South Williamsburg waterfront went into contract for $6.49 million this summer. It’s set to break a nabe record by nearly $1.5 million when the sale closes.
Yes, a number of Brooklyn penthouses are breaking — or are poised to break — neighborhood condo records. Of course, city housing prices are ever on the rise, and this is surely boosting asks. But real estate experts say the flurry of uber-expensive activity is a direct result of the borough’s new-building boom. This type of unit, in these types of fancy buildings, didn’t really exist in Brooklyn before. Now that it does, it’s in demand.
“[The development boom] lit a fire and created this subset that wasn’t as visible as it is now,” says property appraisal guru Jonathan Miller of Brooklyn’s new penthouse market.
In areas like Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens, largely townhouses are available, and developers rightly placed bets that buyers would want alternatives.
“There just wasn’t condo inventory,” says Mick Walsdorf, a co-founder of Flank, the developer and architect of The Boerum in Boerum Hill. Here, three of four penthouses are in contract above Boerum Hill’s $3.32 million condo record — the priciest of them for $4.05 million. “If you wanted to live in some of these prime Brooklyn neighborhoods and you were looking for a family-sized unit, your only real choice was a townhouse. Now you’re being offered choice.”
However, two larger non-penthouse units at The Boerum that are in contract could share the crown for Boerum Hill’s priciest condo deal if they sell for their $4.25 million asks.
There are still other Brooklyn penthouses that could blaze trails towards brand-new neighborhood benchmarks. At 388 Bridge St. in Downtown Brooklyn, two of 10 listed penthouses could crush the area’s existing $3.25 million condo record if they trade for ask. Their prices are $4.53 million and $5.99 million.
And at the eco-friendly “passive” 210 Pacific St. project in Cobble Hill, a listed $5.53 million penthouse would beat the current condo record by nearly $2 million if it goes for that price.
“Brooklyn is a hot spot in general — it’s drawing the attention of a wider demographic looking for all types of housing, including luxury housing that they see in Manhattan,” says Jodi Stasse, the managing director at Corcoran Sunshine Marketing Group who’s overseeing sales efforts at 550 Vanderbilt.
“Now you’re starting to see the product finally catch up with the demand — larger product and unique penthouses.”
One of them is 550 Vanderbilt’s $6.86 million specimen, which came to market two weeks ago and has triple exposures and a 1,850-square-foot terrace. But its best feature, perhaps, is that’s it’s a relative bargain.
As Strasse says, “To find that in Manhattan, the [price] would be double.”