Thank you, Ms. Kimberly Hyatt, for caring enough about selling your listing to take several interior photos, revealing amazing plaster and woodwork that has somehow survived the ages and ravages. The price seems a bit high, but it appears it’s actually six studios! A frugal owner-occupant could live in one and almost not even need to be employed to afford this building. This block of Linden Street is as amazingly intact as the interior of this house, with some of Bushwick’s only real brownstones. Other pockets of cool architecture are scattered in the surrounding blocks and especially on Bushwick Avenue. It’s a bit far from “cool” parts of Bushwick, but the train is just a minute walk down the block to Broadway.
30 Linden Street | $625,000
2850sqft | 19ft-wide | 6-family, 6ba | brownstone
Gates JZ
mopar September 17th, 2008 at 12:59 pm
Wow, lovely. It’s just so sad to think how many buildings in this area had their original details removed — why, oh why??? But enough of my daily lament. It’s nice to see how they once looked. At the same time, I am slightly perplexed as to how this apparently original two-family 1900 rowhouse with brownstone exterior now has six baths and kitchens. There’s got to be some uglification going on that we can’t see in these photos.
ricmac01 September 17th, 2008 at 1:52 pm
For the really curious, there’s an OPEN HOUSE this Sunday 12 – 3PM complete with LUNCH!
Oh yeah, should you wish to relax afterward with your favorite libation (brown-bag Old English 800 is the local choice), there’s what I believe to be a SRO two doors down that has modified its front yard to include a couple of living room sofas, a lounge chair and a big old tube TV so you can catch up on your Soaps! In the FRONT yard!
will September 17th, 2008 at 10:27 pm
Considering 6 units would make it rent stabilized, and it looks like the C of O is for a 3 family, buying this place would probably be a big headache. This is a nice block on Linden though & I actually know someone who bought right across the street.
mopar September 18th, 2008 at 11:41 am
Will (or anyone else): If the C of O is for a three-family, can the units legally be rent stabilized? I don’t know how this works.
Armstrong September 18th, 2008 at 12:07 pm
maybe the current owner has been running it as a rooming house or sro?
typically a building is rent-stabilized if it has six or more units and was built before 1947. individual units can be “de-stabilized” and brought to market-rate rent once the rent goes over $2000 (via rent guidelines board approved yearly increases) AND the established tenant’s income goes over $175,000 for two consecutive years.
units are frequently de-stabilized when a tenant moves out and building owners do extensive renovations in order to raise the rent above $2000 for the next tenants.
Jeremy Sapienza September 18th, 2008 at 12:56 pm
The broker’s page says each unit has a kitchen and bath, so it’s not an SRO. I’m not sure that if you make an older-than-1947 building into a 6+ unit building that it then becomes stabilized. Definitely worth checking out. Worst case, you make two of the units into a cool owner’s unit. Though that’s getting to be a lot of work now for 625K, which I already think is a little steep.
ricmac01 September 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pm
It seems the owner of this house may also own the house a couple of doors down (34 Linden) which is the house with the “outdoor living room”. However, 34 Linden IS classed as a 5-6 family residence. Oh I don’t know. But both buildings have those yellow placards stating, “Tenants and guests only”.
But I DO know I was wrong about brown bagging the Old English when I posted above – there’s a sign on the building stating “Bishop Walley – ice cold water or soda”.
ricmac01 September 21st, 2008 at 8:58 pm
I stopped by the open house today. mopar: the agent says the C of O states 6 family – the similar house two doors down is 3 family but there is a bit of a mix-up because both houses have the same owner. But I can confirm your “uglification” suspicions.
This WAS (once) a beautiful house with, as Jeremy noted, truly amazing plaster and woodwork. Some of the ceilings were quite striking as well. But as small as these studios are, some tenants have bastardized them even further with cheap walls to allow for even more people to crowd the space. The absent-tee owner has really neglected this house and, in my opinion, should expect to get offers for half his asking price.