Fixer-Upper With Original Details in Rare Affordable Co-op in Clinton Hill Historic District Asks $300K

Original kitchen cupboards, a black and white tiled bathroom, high ceilings and parquet floors offer vintage flair.

by Stephen Zacks

01/14/2020 0

This tiny flex one-/two-bedroom hails from the time when the vogue for apartment houses took hold in New York City. It’s on the first floor of the 40-unit Wyoming building, completed in 1915 and claimed to be one-quarter leased by “June brides” in a May 1915 Brooklyn Daily Eagle caption (see lower left corner). The building is an income-restricted HDFC (Housing Development Fund Corporation) co-operative, which accounts for its below-market price, part of a legacy of properties seized by the city and sold to tenants in the 1970s and ’80s.

110 Cambridge Place is within the Clinton Hill Historic District, and it shows in the Beaux-Arts building’s stately rusticated limestone and patterned brick facade as well as its bracketed entrance canopy topped with bears and a balustrade.

The apartment has two rooms facing the street–the living room and flex second bedroom/dining room–with a fixed bedroom oriented around the building’s shared inner courtyard. Original kitchen cupboards, a black and white tiled bathroom, high ceilings and parquet floors offer vintage flair.

Some work is called for, as the listing acknowledges, such as refinishing the kitchen cabinets, upgrading the electrical, and patching in places, but the bathroom appears to be in good shape in photos. Aesthetic upgrades such as opening up the doorway between the dining room and living room and replacing the kitchen tiles and synthetic bedroom floor may also improve the livability.

The co-op appears to be well-run with a live-in super, a common backyard and flexible sublet policy. (Apparently there is no common laundry but an in-unit washer and dryer are allowed.) According to the listing, from Brian Phillips and Keith Johnson of Douglas Elliman, the building accepts 10 percent down, qualifies for bank financing and allows gifts.

The unit’s biggest drawback may be its location facing the street, which may expose the front rooms to heat, noise, and garbage smells in the summer.

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110 Cambridge Place and its neighbor at No. 116, The Montana, were designed by architectural firm Cohn Brothers and replaced four wooden houses. An April 1915 ad for the new buildings proclaimed they were “up to the minute in perfection.”

Located not far from the C train at the Clinton-Washington stop, the complex is in a desirable part of Clinton Hill just around the corner from where Christopher Wallace, aka The Notorious B.I.G., grew up in a similar building.

Offered for $300,000, the unit has a not-insane monthly maintenance of $509. Income restrictions range from $89,640 to $115,320 a year for a family of one to three people.

There’s an open house on Saturday, January 18, from 2:30 to 4 p.m. What do you think?

[Listing: 110 Cambridge Place, APT 1C | Broker: Elliman] GMAP