Exclusive | Tony Brooklyn nabe goes from old money to ultra-luxury as Ritz-Carlton moves in and bidding wars explode

Brooklyn Heights has always had money. Now it has a velvet rope.

The landmarked neighborhood perched above the East River is getting the borough’s first branded condos, a members-only athletic club with a five-figure price tag and a buzzy chef-owned grocery. And it’s all while buyers are clawing over the few apartments that actually come up for sale.

“Since COVID, it has definitely taken on a completely different aura than it had pre-COVID,” Corcoran broker Deb Rieders told The Post. “It’s always been considered a great neighborhood. However, what’s happened since COVID … prices have exponentially gone up.”

The splashiest sign of the shift sits at 98 Montague St.

In September, Marriott International and developer SomeraRoad revealed plans to convert the 14-story Hotel Bossert, a 1909 Renaissance Revival landmark where the Brooklyn Dodgers toasted their 1955 World Series win, into the Ritz-Carlton Residences, Brooklyn Heights.

Owners will get a round-the-clock attended lobby, wellness and entertaining amenities and perks across Marriott’s global portfolio. Danny Meyer’s Union Square Hospitality Group will open its first full-service Brooklyn restaurant on the ground floor. Shovels are expected in the ground later this year, with a 2029 finish. Ryan Serhant’s firm is handling sales for units, whose prices are not yet available.

“We believe this project will become Brooklyn’s premier residential address and stand among the finest new residential offerings in New York City,” SomeraRoad founder Ian Ross said in a statement.

(If the luxury pitch sounds familiar, that’s because the Bossert has been here before. The Jehovah’s Witnesses sold the building to Joseph Chetrit of Chetrit Group and David Bistricer of Clipper Equity for $81 million in 2012, with plans for a boutique hotel. The reopening was pushed back again and again, and a planned fall 2017 debut under the name Esplendor Bossert never happened. Chetrit defaulted in May 2022 owing as much as $126.7 million, and a 2023 rescue attempt by hoteliers Ian Schrager and Ed Scheetz fizzled. Lender Beach Point Capital took the property at an uncontested foreclosure auction in February 2025, then sold it to SomeraRoad for $100 million that May.)

Rieders said the Ritz news caught the industry off guard, at first.

“I think it took all of us by surprise, though I’m not surprised at all, actually, given the bidding wars that I have on every single property that I have in the Heights,” she said.

“With wealthier residents comes a desire for fancier amenities.” Rieders said as for why a hotel brand would plant its flag there. 

A few blocks away, Kings Athletic Club opened this fall in the base of the Hotel St. George co-op at 43 Clark St. The 52,000-square-foot playground packs two tennis courts, pickleball, a pool, squash courts, golf simulators, yoga and Pilates studios and a half basketball court. Red Hook Tavern founder Billy Durney runs the kitchen.

The club wouldn’t discuss pricing, but a source familiar with its options said annual memberships run between $30,000 and $70,000, and there’s already a waitlist.

The Ritz isn’t the only newcomer betting big on the neighborhood.

Landau Properties broke ground this summer on One Montague Place at 205 Montague St., a 50-story mixed-use tower that will deliver 46 condos, 90 rentals and 40,000 square feet of retail. Designed by Hill West Architects with interiors by Zarifi Design, the project is pitching a hotel-style lifestyle built around wellness, complete with a jazz club, a private membership club, and a lineup of leisure and entertainment spaces.

Pricing specifics are not yet available, but reports have indicated units will begin at roughly $6 million. Douglas Elliman’s Greg Williamson is the lead broker handling sales there.

“As someone born and raised in Brooklyn Heights who has represented numerous buildings in the area, I have never seen the neighborhood more desirable than it is today,” he told The Post. “We’re already seeing tremendous early interest and excitement surrounding the project.”

Rieders said the fiercest fights aren’t over the trophy townhouses. They’re over the relatively attainable apartments.

“Anything that’s in an ‘affordable’ price range goes into a bidding war,” she said. “Any co-ops or condos from one to four bedrooms, they all seem to go into bidding wars.”

Recent sales back her up. Take a two-bedroom at 89 State St. It hit the market at $1.67 million on Sept. 7, went into contract by Sept. 22 and closed Oct. 26 for $1.9 million, a cool $230,000 over ask.

Over at 75 Poplar St., another two-bedroom asking $1.65 million found a buyer within a week. It sold in September for $125,000 above the asking price.

The reason is basic supply and demand. 

“There’s a serious lack of inventory,” Rieders said. “Almost every co-op and condo goes into a bidding war because people don’t really move. There’s not a tremendous amount of movement out, there’s just people who want to move in.”

“I would say in the $1 million to $5 million range, everything goes into a bidding war,” she added. One of her buyers “got outbid on about six things before they finally got an accepted offer.”

Neighborhood-wide, homes are going into contract in a median of 45 days, three days quicker than a year earlier, with a median sale price of about $1.77 million. At the very top, an off-market deal for a Civil War-era townhouse at 192 Columbia Heights closed for roughly $25 million, the priciest Brooklyn sale so far this year.

Rieders traces the frenzy to the pandemic, when Manhattanites wanted space and trees without straying far. They stayed for the schools, walkability and transit.

“It’s easier to commute from Brooklyn Heights than to almost any neighborhood in Manhattan because every single subway is there,” she said. And as a landmark district, “it’s very protected from development.”

Boldfacers caught on long ago. Matt Damon set a borough record with a $16.7 million penthouse at the Standish at 171 Columbia Heights, and Emily Blunt and John Krasinski followed with an $11 million full floor in the same building. Over the summer, Adam Driver shelled out $11.5 million for three units on the sixth floor of the building.

“I think regular people and celebrities are the same,” Rieders said. “So you feel like you live on Mayberry Lane, but you’re at the foot of the largest, most vibrant city in the world.”

The dining scene, long a weak spot, is catching up. 

“It’s been a restaurant wasteland for years, quite frankly,” Rieders said. Now culinary-world darling Alison Roman is bringing a permanent Brooklyn Heights outpost of her boutique grocery and cafe, First Bloom, with speculation pointing to 144 Montague St.

And the money isn’t staying put. Rieders sees it spilling into neighboring enclaves like Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Carroll Gardens.

“It’s all the brownstone neighborhoods that are close to Manhattan,” she said.

“It feels like you live in a small town, but you have all of the benefit of living in the greatest city in the United States.”