A 51-unit loft building sitting directly above the Morgan Avenue L train station in East Williamsburg has sold for $30 million, capping off a deal for a property that spent two decades as one of Brooklyn's more recognizable industrial-to-residential conversions. The building at 59 Bogart St. offers one-, two-, and three-bedroom loft-style homes and still carries the bones of its manufacturing past inside its renovated units.
CBRE completed the sale, according to the New York Real Estate Journal, which reported that Robert Shapiro represented the seller and procured the buyer, while Ian Brooks also represented the seller. The property was repositioned into its current 51 residential units back in 2005, per the same outlet, well before East Williamsburg's transformation into one of Brooklyn's denser rental corridors near the L train.
Shapiro said the building attracted significant investor interest thanks to its transit-oriented location, its recent residential conversion history and its proximity to major planned development projects nearby, the report notes. The building's location is a major selling point on its own: it sits directly above the Morgan Avenue L stop, putting residents literally steps from the subway platform, a detail also highlighted by a Compass listing describing the building as just steps from the Morgan L train.
Industrial Bones, Modern Amenities
Inside, 59 Bogart St. retains many of its original industrial design elements, and its renovated interiors were crafted to preserve original architectural features rather than erase them, the article notes. Amenities include a residents' lounge, a gym, a bike room, a roof deck with a barbecue area, additional communal outdoor spaces, and in-building laundry.
Compass markets units in the building as no-fee rental lofts with an industrial vibe, describing the renovated apartments as the epitome of updated loft living, with interiors carefully crafted to highlight the structure's original features. That framing lines up with the building's broader pitch to prospective renters and, evidently, to the investors who saw it as worth $30 million.
Part of a Bigger Conversion Wave
The sale lands amid a broader boom in New York building conversions. Manhattan office-to-residential conversions reached 5 million square feet in 2025, the highest level in two decades, according to credaily.com. Another 9.8 million square feet of Manhattan office space is now planned for conversion, including nine individual projects totaling 2 million square feet, with Midtown accounting for 51.6% of proposed conversions, Downtown holding 38.7% and Midtown South trailing at 9.7%, per the same report.
Not every planned conversion makes it across the finish line, however. Credaily.com reports that 625 Madison Avenue and 623 Fifth Avenue both reverted back to office use after renewed leasing demand made those projects less attractive as residential plays — a reminder that conversion pipelines can shift in either direction depending on market conditions.
Elsewhere in the city, the scale of some conversion projects dwarfs a single Brooklyn loft building. RXR and Apollo secured $500 million to convert a 33-story Manhattan office tower into 796 apartments, while the proposed conversion of 5 Times Square could deliver up to 1,200 residential units, according to credaily.com. Against that backdrop, 59 Bogart St. represents a smaller but already-completed version of the same trend that's reshaping how New York building stock gets reused.
