Brooklyn Heights penthouse breaks rental record

Lease signed sight unseen within two days

Nest Seekers’ Bianca D’Alessio and Mia Calabrese (Nest Seekers, StreetEasy)
Nest Seekers’ Bianca D’Alessio and Mia Calabrese (Nest Seekers, StreetEasy)

Your blockquote here…

Less than a year after a Brooklyn Heights townhouse set the mark for the borough’s priciest rental, a nearby penthouse has beaten it — by a third.

The penthouse at 67 Livingston Street was on the market for only two days before new tenants landed it for $40,000 a month — sight unseen. It’s the highest single-unit property rental in Brooklyn since Miller Samuel started tracking the data in 2008, beating by $10,000 a month 149 Clinton Street, which rented last July.

Bianca D’Alessio, leader of the Masters Division team at Nest Seekers International, leased the property along with team member Mia Calabrese. The two, who star on the Discovery+ series “Selling the Hamptons,” listed the unit for $30,000 a month, a 71 percent jump from the $17,500-a-month lease the last tenant signed in 2020.

Turns out, potential tenants considered that a bargain.

Sign Up for the undefined Newsletter

“We felt very comfortable at 27, [but] we said, ‘Let’s try for 30,’ because there’s not a lot of rhyme or reason right now in the rental market,” D’Alessio said. “I think we got something near 22 inquiries on the first day we put it on the market.”

Read more

D’Alessio said the new tenants are a family who relocated from the Upper East Side for the schools.

The 3,000-square-foot duplex offers views of downtown Manhattan and the World Trade Center and has a 460-square-foot terrace. It has four bedrooms and 3.5 bathrooms, as well a 30-foot wide dining area with floor-to-ceiling windows that opens onto a large balcony.

The oversized corner primary suite has four large closets and an en-suite, five-fixture bathroom. Amenities at the 22-story building include a doorman, childrens’ playroom, residents’ lounge, wine storage and a bike room.

The median luxury rent in Brooklyn has increased by 18 percent year-over-year, according to Miller Samuel’s April market report, outpacing the rest of the market. Almost a quarter of new leases faced a bidding war.