Verrazano Owners, Bay Ridge, Brooklyn

About 308 101st Street

Verrazano Owners is a Bay Ridge co-op that most people underestimate from the street. What looks like a row of small three story walk ups is one corporation of 80 homes across 16 buildings, five to a building, running along 101st Street from 306 through 340 and around the corner at 9957 3rd Avenue. Buying here means buying into the whole corporation, not just the entrance you walk through.

Every building has the same five home layout, and once you know it the unit letter tells you the apartment. Line A on the first floor is a studio. Line B, also on the first floor, is a two bedroom duplex with its own small backyard. Lines C and D on the second floor are one bedrooms. Line E on the top floor is a two bedroom with two balconies and a vaulted ceiling, and the ones facing the right way look out at the Verrazzano Bridge. That spread is why homes in the same corporation have sold anywhere from the $170,000s to the $600,000s. Many of the apartments come with an on site outdoor parking space that transfers with the home rather than sitting on a building waitlist, though not every home has one, and that alone is close to unheard of in Bay Ridge. Maintenance covers the real estate taxes while residents pay their own gas and electric, so the monthly number runs lower than a comparable full service co-op.

Day to day it is a straightforward, well kept setup: voice intercom entry, an on site superintendent, a basement laundry room, private storage and a shared garden. The corporation is pet friendly, welcoming cats and dogs, and subletting is permitted after two years of ownership. It sits in the southern end of Bay Ridge near Fort Hamilton, a few blocks from the Shore Road waterfront and the promenade, with the R train at 95th Street and express bus service to Manhattan nearby. For a buyer who wants a backyard, a balcony or a parking space without a full service price, Verrazano Owners rewards knowing how it is put together.