The $12,000-a-Month Landmarked Brownstone in Chelsea

by Brendan O’Connor

Welcome to Surreal Estate, a new column in which we will explore listings and stories from the tumultuous New York City real estate market.

343 West 29th Street
• $11,900/month
• Three bedrooms, 2.5 bathrooms
• 2,200 square feet
• Nearest subway: A/C/E at Penn Station

“So this is English House,” Citihabitats’ Donna Kreeger said as we walked up the steps to the townhouse at 343 West 29th Street. “The owner named it that. She’s English.” Light streamed through the massive townhouse windows as Kreeger heaved the shades open. “The blinds weigh about fifty pounds each,” she joked. Then, more seriously, she added, “even when it’s gloomy out, there’s something very comforting about this old home.”

Walking into the house, you enter on the second floor, where there is a half bathroom, a set of stairs down to the ground floor, and three wide, open rooms from the front of the building to the back. The ceilings soar, and the molding, trim, and door casings are all either original or restored to the original style. Built in the late eighteen forties, the house, a landmarked brownstone, is now part of what is called the Lamartine Historic District. “They built things really well,” Kreeger said. “There were no shortcuts back then.”

Indeed, there is a lot of history here: a famous Abolitionist family, the Gibbons, lived at 339 West 29th Street. Their home was apparently a stop on the Underground Railroad, and several houses on the block were targeted during the Draft Riots of 1863. According to the Landmarks Preservation Commission’s designation report, the owner at the time — it wasn’t English House, then — was beaten when he came outside and tried to persuade the rioters from rioting.

“I come in here and I imagine dinner parties, ball gowns, and dancing,” Kreeger said. “It’s fine if you prefer contemporary architecture, but people respond to history and craftsmanship and elegance.” Downstairs, in the master bedroom, a monitor displayed video feeds from four security cameras. “So much detail, so lovingly restored,” Kreeger said as we walked into the kitchen. Living here, she said, you get a sense of what it was like to live in New York almost two centuries ago. “Plus, modern amenities.”

English House’s English owner, Sonia Cozzi — “originally British, raised Italian; a daughter of the world, shall we say” — invested a great deal of time and a lot of money into the property during the ten years she lived there, raising two children and a dog. “There are so few brownstones left in Manhattan, on the island itself,” Cozzi said. “I thought it was really important to bring life back into the building by restoring, rather than renovating.” The duplex has had several tenants since Cozzi and her family moved out, and unfortunately one had a dog that chewed up the molding along the floor in eighteen places. “It was traumatic,” Kreeger said.

“This is a strong home,” Kreeger said. “It’s strong. Nobody cares about that anymore. They just build quick and cheap.” She lives in a new construction in Harlem. “It makes me appreciate everything it isn’t.” Kreeger and several other tenants in her building recently settled a lawsuit with the builder over their apartments’ windows. They were too heavy to open, and if you managed to get them open they would slam shut without warning. “Like a guillotine.”

137 West 110th Street, #3A
• $2,395/month
• One bedroom, one bathroom
• 720 square feet
• Nearest subway: 2/3 trains at 110th Street

At the top of Central Park and the bottom of Harlem is an area tenuously referred to as Central Park North. It is “the mirror image of Central Park South,” broker Sandra Ospina said. “Actually, the views are even better, because you’re facing south.” One building here is called the Semiramis, and it was built in 1901. “There are very few pre-war condos,” Ospina said. “And this one is very well-kept.” The apartment was recently renovated and the floor is brand new, according to Ospina.

From this apartment, though, you’re not looking at the park. “You don’t have park views. You have those when you go outside,” Ospina said, looking out the window. “You do have sky views, which is not so usual for New York.” Indeed, the space between this building and the next is quite broad. Looking at the building across, she added, “Sometimes you might see a raccoon!”

When the building was purchased in the late eighties, the buyers kept some apartments for themselves to rent, and because the landlord is the sponsor of the apartment, applicants won’t have to go through the condo association. Nice.

150 Ocean Parkway, #6C
• $599,000
• Common charges: $358; Monthly taxes: $117
• Two bedrooms, two bathroom
• 996 square feet
• Nearest subway: F/G trains at Hamilton Parkway

Mary LaRosa Lederer, the proprietor of Brooklyn Real and a twenty-year resident of Windsor Terrace, had an open house at a two-bedroom, two-bathroom condominium in her neighborhood on Sunday. Seventy-three people signed in. “I have a bunch of offers already, and I’m expecting more,” Lederer said. “It’s a frenzy!”

The condo faces west, over a low neighborhood of houses; the Verrazzano-Narrows Bridge is visible in the distance. There is a walk-in closet in the master bedroom. “This could be a bedroom in Manhattan,” Lederer joked. “Two-bedrooms are all bidding wars,” she told me. But really, “the second bathroom is the clincher.” And moreover, “because it’s a condo people feel like they can rent it out if they want to.”

The seller is the unit’s original owner, who has been there since whenever they let people move in, about ten years ago. “She wants to downsize, she’s a single person,” Lederer said. Right now, she is using the second bedroom as an office. “It will definitely go above asking. I hope one hundred thousand more,” she said. “I heard about one in Windsor Terrace that went a hundred and fifty thousand over, but that was just one crazy buyer.” Best and final offers must be in by noon Friday.

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