Brooklyn Heights Mansion Fetches Record-Breaking Price

Talk about a trophy property. 88 Remsen Street, in Brooklyn Heights, sold for $10,800,000, nosing out 140 Columbia Heights—which went for $10.75M in ’06—as the most expensive house sale ever reported in Brooklyn Heights, and one of the priciest residential properties ever to change hands in the borough. (There have been other Heights sales in this megabucks ballpark: 82 Remsen, for example, sold for $10.5 million in 2006.) The mansion at 88 Remsen went into contract early this year. The listing described it thus:

This home incorporates early Greek-Revival woodwork, which was later modified with post-Civil War period details. The rear addition and parlors on the main floor were remodeled in colonial or Adam fashion in 1906. This rare through-the-block property includes two buildings. The main house contains approximately 10,000 square feet over five stories, with beautiful wood detail, moldings and floors…The main entry to the carriage house is from Grace Court Alley, with a garage that can accommodate two cars. In addition, it has a wonderful, bright apartment above and a full cellar below with windows (which once provided horses with fresh air and light). The carriage house has separately metered utilities and its own furnace.This grand piece of history has been home to many fine families, including, for thirty years, the former chairman of Morgan Stanley.

Its buyer is a bit of a mystery, since he/she/they hid behind an LLC. Public records of the sale were also obscure and extremely confusing: The Dept. of Finance listed the sale price in one document as $6,480,000, with an additional transaction for $4,320,000 going to a mortgage payment between buyer and seller. (The full sale price on the deed, per city records, is on the jump.) Anyhow, Brown Harris Stevens, which brokered the deal with listing broker Kevin Carberry, confirmed the sale price was $10.8 million. GMAP