Renovations planned for Brooklyn Heights house sold by Jared Kushner’s company

Landmarks Preservation Commission okays exterior work at 27 Monroe Place

July 18, 2017 By Lore Croghan Brooklyn Daily Eagle

Jared Kushner, seen with his wife Ivanka Trump, formerly headed the company that sold Brooklyn Heights rowhouse 27 Monroe Place in April. AP Photo

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The most expensive house in Brooklyn Heights is already in fine, fine shape.

The company Jared Kushner headed until he became a senior adviser to his father-in-law, President Donald Trump, did a meticulous, high-end makeover of 27 Monroe Place before selling it in April.

Thanks to that remodeling, the landmarked Greek Revival-style rowhouse reportedly has an elevator, central air conditioning and five bedrooms that all are suites.

But the new owner of the red-brick single-family home is planning to do further renovations.

On Tuesday, the remodeling project took a step forward when the city Landmarks Preservation Commission (LPC) voted unanimously to approve exterior work at 27 Monroe Place.

Prior to the vote at the preservation agency’s Lower Manhattan headquarters, Meenakshi Srinivasan, the LPC’s chair, called the planned exterior work “very appropriate.”

It includes the excavation of the areaway, the installation of a wrought-iron fence and gate, security bars on ground-floor windows, storage bins and bluestone paving and steps and the addition of plants in front of the areaway.

The landscape designer for the project is a company called the Organic Gardener. The architect is Danielle Albert.

The LPC was not called upon to pass judgment on interior renovation plans for the historic house, which was built in 1844.

In June, the city Buildings Department issued a permit for architectural, plumbing and mechanical work inside the house.

Brooklyn Heights’ priciest house sale

The house belongs to The 27 Monroe Place Trust with Jillian Barbati as trustee, which purchased it from the Kushner Cos. for $12.9 million, city Finance Department records indicate.

The transaction was the second-priciest house sale in the entire borough of Brooklyn and the priciest house deal in Brooklyn Heights.

Barbati, the trustee of The 27 Monroe Place Trust, is a vice president at AJ Wealth in Lower Manhattan. The firm handles asset management, estate planning, tax planning and other services for clients. Finance Department records don’t identity the beneficiaries of the trust — meaning the people who will live at 27 Monroe Place when renovations are completed.

The Kushner Cos. bought 27 Monroe Place from Brooklyn Law School in 2014 for $7,419,004, Finance Department records indicate. The rowhouse had been used as a law-school dorm.

The Kushner Cos. recently put two renovated multifamily buildings it owns in the Brooklyn Heights Historic District, 18 Sidney Place and 144 Willow St., up for sale.

The real-estate firm has extensive holdings in Brooklyn Heights and DUMBO. Kushner Cos. and its investor partners have paid the Jehovah’s Witnesses more than $1 billion for prime properties in the two neighborhoods — including the former Watchtower headquarters at 25-30 Columbia Heights, which has an iconic red-neon sign that says “Watchtower” on top of it.

The Buildings Department has approved an application by the Jehovah’s Witnesses for a permit to remove the individual letters from the famous sign and leave its framework intact.